24 freshmen were placed in sophomore-level Chemistry-Plus classes over the summer as a result of a decision made by the science department to implement a pilot program for freshmen science tracking. This change allows freshmen with an interest and capacity for science to move ahead into more challenging classes during high school.  

As in past years, current Chemistry-Plus sections include new students who have transferred into Parker freshman year having already a science offered in middle school. The science department felt that returning students at Parker were at a disadvantage compared to these new students and weren’t able to challenge themselves or excel in science if they desired to, according to head of the science department, Elizabeth Druger.

9th graders enrolled in Chemistry Plus, formerly closed to most freshmen, will take physics their sophomore year and advanced biology their junior or senior year.  In years past, students have taken biology, chemistry, and physics during their freshman, sophomore, and junior years, respectively.  

The pilot was made easier to implement by the fact that the eighth grade now provides two different leveled math classes. Students in the higher 8th grade math class, Algebra 1+, take Geometry and Trigonometry their freshman year and then advance into Algebra II their sophomore year. This new opportunity for gifted math students affords those skipping ahead in science the proper math skills for taking physics their sophomore year instead of junior year.  

“I definitely think that there needs to be a split track for freshmen, and I think that the science department is doing their best to make that a reality,” freshman Charlie Moog, who is enrolled in Chemistry-Plus, said. “As of now, I haven’t experienced anything in the new process that I think should be changed.”

Students were invited into Chemistry-Plus if recommended by 8th grade science teacher Anne Marie Fries. Fries chose students at the end of the 2014-15 school year based on their strength in math and science in both seventh and eighth grades and on whether they had a strong score on the process skills test, given to students at the end of 8th grade. The test didn’t consist of scientific questions.  

“It was a skills test not content test,” Fries said. “It tests how well you can investigate, problem solve, and handle scientific information. It is not how much you know, but how well you can learn science and handle yourself in the lab. If you have the skills, you can learn the content.”

Freshmen, ten of whom were new to Parker this year, along with students from the sophomore class, are spread throughout four Chemistry-Plus sections. The number of sections is twice that of past years to compensate for the extra students.  

“It’s a great idea to track freshmen science this way,” junior Lauren Goodman said.  “It will help with the stress of junior year ‘cause they won’t have to take physics junior year.  I also was granted the opportunity to go ahead in science, to Advanced Chemistry, my sophomore year, with the help of my advisor. I thought it was a really good opportunity because I could focus on science, which is something I enjoy.”

The pilot program started in order to see if there were alternative ways to allow freshmen to take these classes at a higher level without introducing new courses, and if these alternatives would work for future years.  

“We’re so small that you can’t do much more than this,” Druger said. “We only have five science classrooms and nine teachers. Physically, we just don’t have the space to do much more.”

The solution to the question was simple after the science department came up with it: it would be easier to shift students up to higher level classes than change the curriculum, according to Druger.  

In the past ten years Parker’s science department has tried other ways to track science. Six years ago the science department decided to start an integrated chemistry and biology class with a regular and an advanced track. This attempt to change the program, like others, fell flat, according to Druger. Either the change in the levels of classes wasn’t substantive enough, or the process was too complicated and lengthy to continue.  

“The benefit of this new change is clear,” science teacher and former science department chair Xiao Zhang said. “The benefit for freshmen is it allows them to take our most advanced courses earlier.  There’s also a disadvantage, which is when creating the year-long courses for a particular grade, connections are broken within grades because not all the students are taking the same subject classes.”

As of now the science department feels that freshmen are being challenged enough in Chemistry-Plus.  In the next academic year, steps will be taken to either solidify the plan, by examining problems found in the tracking system, or to stop the pilot altogether.  

“This is a pilot year,” Druger said. “Nothing that is written in stone. Change is not easy, so when we introduce change, we ask ourselves questions. Why are we doing something different? How does that happen? I think that change should challenge us in good ways. I think change allows bigger conversations to happen that we normally wouldn’t have.”