Last year the English Department removed prerequisites for classes outright, instead opting to “strongly recommend” certain letter grades in a prior course for honors or AP classes. Any student who requests the course, given that they maintained a passing grade in the previous class and have space in their schedule, will be allowed to take the class.
“Sometimes the grades students earn their freshmen year don’t reflect their ability but more their maturity,” said Caitlin Mccranie 10th-grade English teacher. “So we decided to give students access to the class with much discussion on them taking responsibility for their increased workload.”
At OPHS, prerequisites exist for almost every class after freshman year. This includes but is not limited to the A in CP biology requirement for AP psychology, the requirement for an A in CP US History to take AP Macroeconomics and the A in CP biology required to take honors chemistry. This poses the question: are prerequisites healthy for schools, students and teachers?
Other academic departments have been debating whether or not to follow suit in removing their prerequisite requirements. The issue is: some classes build upon one another from year to year.
“With world language and math your classes are sequential,” said Lisa Bregar, math teacher. “If you don’t do well in Algebra 1 and take Algebra 2, your Algebra 2 is gonna be pretty rough.”
This argument stresses the importance of prerequisites for math and world language classes as performance in a lower-level class is a strong indicator of performance in the subsequent class, according to math and world language teachers at OPHS.
Our position is that sequential classes at OPHS should have prerequisites while nonsequential classes should not.
In a 2017 study on the impact of prerequisites that do not involve sequential classes in college, researchers found that “results identified no performance benefit of prerequisite completion.” The study relied on both quantitative evidence from students’ grades and students’ responses. There was no significant difference in the grades received by those who did take the prerequisite course. Moreover, after taking the course, 90% of the students said that the prerequisite should continue to remain optional, as they felt it did not produce any advantage.
If students at the college level—where many specialized courses must be taken for completion of different degrees—believe that prerequisite courses are not significantly beneficial to their academic performance, then why should high school courses have required prerequisites for nonsequential classes?
In 2018, John Hattie at the Melbourne Education Research Institute conducted a meta-analysis regarding the factors that relate to student achievement. The meta-analysis of 132,000 studies determined 252 factors that influence student performance and achievement. Prior ability, such as student performance in previous classes, was ranked ninth most important. Much more important were things such as collective teacher efficacy and teacher estimates of achievement.
It is important to note the appeals process at OPHS. If a student does not meet a grade prerequisite, then they are allowed to appeal for a chance to take the next course anyway if their request is accepted.
The appeals process is just an extra step for students in an effort to take the class they want to take. The sole existence of an appeal process at OPHS reveals that prior classes and grades may not always be the best indicator of whether or not a student should take a class. The removal of prerequisite classes in nonsequential classes means that students would have more freedom to take courses that fit their interests for college along with their graduation-required courses.
Students who choose to take certain courses despite not meeting the “strong recommendations” would also be held more accountable for their own choices in classes, as they know what academic rigor they can best handle. They would be able to judge their past performances and knowledge from classes to determine whether the next class would be the proper fit for them.
The English department decided to eliminate prerequisites because of their belief that public school students should have fair and unrestricted access to public school classes. With course selections still not finalized, there is no better time for students to voice their opinions about course prerequisites to administrators, teachers and other students.
