New Radnor Schools Focus: Accelerated Classes And Cross-Class Grouping

On Wednesday, June 27, the Radnor Township School District held a meeting to explain its “expanded options for student growth," which involves "accelerated classes and cross-class grouping in the Radnor district’s three elementary schools and its middle school," reports Main Line Media News.

The video and other resources from the meeting aren't up yet as of June 28, but the podcast is. Click here for the podcast.

The newspaper article quotes Kim Maguire, assistant superintendent, as saying, “New leaders and achievers develop when the highest-achieving students are removed to other classrooms,” Maguire said. “We are committed to growth for all students, [and we are] not [presently] doing that for many of our students.”

More from the article:

The question driving the changes, Maguire said, is “How can students grow who are already at the top?”

A data-based answer, Maguire said, coming from Pennsylvania’s Value-added assessment and using the Radnor fifth grade as an example, shows” little or no growth, more toward higher-achieving students.” There have been “parent concerns” also. “Although many of our students outperform the state average, they are not making a year’s-worth of growth,” she said.

Read the article in its entirety here.

Do you have a child in Radnor's public schools? What do you think is the district's strengths and weaknesses? What do you think of the new curriculum model?