The district has yet to provide equal course offerings for freshmen, officials said.
Patch Staff
|Updated Thu, Feb 27, 2025 at 8:10 am CT
HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86 officials on Wednesday examined the inequality in social studies course offerings between the two campuses. The focus was ninth grade.
Some residents have called for the district to offer World History Honors, which is offered to freshmen at Hinsdale Central, but not South.
Both campuses provide a standard-level course called World Cultures to freshmen, but the curriculums differ.
Hinsdale Central's World History Honors examines history from ancient times to the present, while South provides World Studies Honors, which goes back to 1450.
During public comments, Hinsdale resident Linda Burke made the case for World History Honors.
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"Opportunity alignment means access to the same courses at both campuses to the greatest extent financially and logistically possible," Burke told the board.
That particularly applies, she said, to mainstream college prep courses that should be available to all.
"World History Honors is a case in point that should be available at Hinsdale South. It provides the opportunity to take an AP test, which World Studies Honors does not," Burke said. "There is a constituency for World History Honors at South, and we wouldn't need more (staff) to convert a section or two to World History Honors. Denying an AP prep course is very serious opportunity inequality."
But during a later presentation, Superintendent Michael Lach said World History Honors is not designed to prepare students for the AP Modern World History exam. Successful passage of AP tests gives students college credit.
As with other subjects, students take the AP Modern World History test anyway, despite the lack of a course for that purpose, he said. That's the case at both schools.
He acknowledged the district has not equalized social studies course offerings at the two campuses.
"These courses have not gone through the alignment process, so they are not the same," Lach said. "I'm sure they teach an awful lot of the state standards that are expected of them, but there are probably some differences."
Two years ago, a split board rejected teacher-recommended changes to equalize social studies course offerings at both campuses. That drew the teachers union's condemnation.
After Lach's presentation, board member Heather Kartsounes said the information would help counteract "narratives flying around."
"We are seeing similar AP scores," said Kartsounes, who lives in the Central area. "So obviously something right is happening right now with the curriculum. We have students performing very similarly at both schools."
However, member Asma Akhras, one of two members from the South zone, said the ninth-grade courses have different objectives, experiences and outcomes.
"I do believe there has to be an alignment of opportunities," she said.
Member Terri Walker, who lives in the Central zone, made the same point she did two years ago when she voted in favor of the teachers' plan for social studies.
"We should hopefully be taking advice from the professionals about what the actual course looks like and that it meets state standards," Walker said.
The board made no decisions after the hour-long discussion. But members said they would continue studying the issue in one of their committees.
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