Seeking Community Consensus about the Centennial Middle School Language Arts Program

My son is a third grader and we live in the Centennial neighborhood. Without ALA, I will open enroll my son out of his home school.

I truly believe that Language Arts can be a foundation for our kid's brain and character development. Eliminating the advanced course will severely affect those students who have the potential and want to learn more about how to be a better human by learning it from literature.

The advanced language arts program at centennial is instrumental to student success. Eliminating it would be a mistake that may cost many students.

I believe that it is very important that children whom are advanced in an academic area, need to be taught at the accelerated pace, that they are advancing. These children need to be challenged, they need to receive advanced instruction in the area/s that they have strength, otherwise you will miss the opportunity for the child whom is advanced to remain advanced. I speak as a parent with a child that is 2 grade levels ahead in math and this advanced work, track and placement will greatly benefit my child as he moves forward to high school and to someday apply to colleges. The steps you are taking now to either nurture and enhance the child's strengths, or let them meander and stagger, will make or break their level of success as a college bound individual. Competition is fierce and these children need to have academic strengths that will help them stand out.

Thank you!

As is the case with advanced math instruction, students with advanced ability and potential in Language Arts deserve to be challenged together, as a group. Without classroom instruction and discussion tailored to advanced students, it falls to parents to provide advanced writing instruction, and this simply is not an adequate model. Further, without ALA, I worry that Centennial students will not be prepared to succeed in AP English in high school.

I've heard wonderful things about this program and am hoping that my children (still in elementary) will have the opportunity to be a part of it!

I would like to be a part of a solution, whatever that may be, so that we can move on to be a more cohesive group of parents at Centennial.

If students want to push themselves, and their writing, to a higher level, there should be an outlet for that. There is no more powerful nonviolent force in this world than words. Public schools should encourage student interest in writing whenever it can.

I hope Centennial and BVSD will reconsider and once again implement an ALA program for their students!

echo exactly what Ms. Pringle said.

My biggest concern over this change was the lack of communication and parent involvement in the decision. From what I can tell, parents were not told about the change until it was already made. I am sure many families chose Centennial because of its curriculum and Advanced LA plays a big role in that decision. It was a big reason why my son chose to open enroll there. His home school did not have advanced classes. My son's advanced LA class with Mr. Feiger was challenging and transformative. I don't think a one size fits all approach works. The Boulder community of parents is very involved and vocal...that is a good thing for our schools and kids, but I feel it has been positioned as a negative in this situation. I am glad to hear that there is now going to be a parent forum for this topic in November per an email that came out this week.

I am quite disturbed by this sudden change with no notice or input from the parent body. I don't feel confident that this change benefits all the students at all, nor that the teachers are capable of addressing the needs of such a large class with such a broad range of competencies.

I feel the way the principal has dealt with this change has been inadequate.

Please return ALA to Centennial Middle School.

Principal Ellis responded to our request for the formation of a stakeholder group. She told us that she would not form a stakeholder group. She told us that she will hold an information night on November 17th. She reiterated that all design, implementation and evaluation of Language Arts instruction would be conducted by teachers, school administrators and district administrators. She did not give us a reason for refusing our request for parents to be a part of this process.

If we are getting rid of advanced LA classes, why not get rid of all advanced math classes, too? Is that out of the question? Then why? Would our advanced math kids get bored? Well they can go "above and beyond" and challenge themselves, right? Why is it different for our advanced LA kids? I saw my daughter thrive with the ALA program at Centennial (she is a sophomore at FV and is now thriving in their IB program as well), and my son was pushed and challenged in his ALA 6/7th grade classes. Our language arts programs need to meet the needs of ALL children, just as our math classes do.

I feel strongly about this issue as my daughter will attend Centennial next year.

I believe the cornerstone of a good education is mathematics and language arts. Both of my children got a lot out of the ALA program at Centennial. I hate to see this program disappear. It was an excellent program.

Challenging our students in Language Arts is no less important than challenging them in Math. Too many students lose interest in school because they are not challenged and middle school offers a period in a child's life when they really develop their passions based on what they are learning. While the Talented and Gifted program is not a [structured] option for children in middle school, advanced classes offer similar opportunities for our students. Without class instruction for advanced Language Arts, how likely is it that students of this age will push themselves to think beyond the standard curriculum, or to challenge themselves beyond the standard expectations? There are always exceptions, but as a parent to 3 children in BVSD I can emphasize the importance of advanced classes - both in Math and Language Arts. My children have been greatly challenged and inspired by their opportunities and because of this, they continue to push themselves. Please, re-consider this change to Language Arts so that we can continue to offer our children the very best opportunities in learning.