For at least the past decade, an increasing number of students have tried to accelerate into higher level math courses, a trend that has also sometimes led to dozens of students dropping harder classes for easier classes in the fall semester as they struggle and realize the difficulties they will face.
This year, to combat the trend of overreaching in math, students who hoped to accelerate had to take placement tests in August to determine whether they would qualify for the harder classes.
Guidance counselor Brian Safine worked closely with the math teachers to ensure a smooth and clear implementation of the new policy.
The effort appears to have been successful so far. Safine said the policies resulted in roughly one-third the number of level changes as in the past few years.
According to registrar Jean Hsu, there were a total of 40 level changes within the math department during the 2022-23 school year, of which 35 students dropped to a lower level; 84 changes during the 2024-25 school year of which 77 were to a lower level; however, this year, there were only 10 level changes — and all were to a lower level.
The lack of rigid restrictions on class acceleration in recent years created an environment for students to “shop” for classes, guidance counselors said. If they felt their class was too challenging or not challenging enough, they had until the change (between honors and non-honors courses) date — typically three weeks after school starts — to switch out. However, this led to overenrolled imbalanced classes and a lot of unnecessary work for the math department.
The history of acceleration criteria has changed throughout the years as higher level academics have become increasingly important for high school students.
Before 2012, there was a strict threshold for advancement into accelerated classes. When Paul Robinson was principal at SHS from 2012-19, he pushed to open up acceleration to a full open-access policy. Over the years, a pattern of accelerating to honors classes despite teacher recommendations to stay in college preparatory classes has resulted in increased stress during the beginning of the school year.
“Many students taking honors classes would drop down into the regular classes, creating disruptions in scheduling and sometimes forcing the school to open new sections (class periods),” guidance counselor Eileen Allen said.
The guidance office publicized the change in policy starting as early as January and coordinated one-on-one meetings with parents and students looking to accelerate.
Within this process, counselors met with middle school students to explain the changing policies, sent out information regarding testing logistics and communicated with families about schedule changes when a student needed to be moved up or down depending on their determined placement.
Students mostly applied to do one of two acceleration paths: substituting a summer geometry class for full-year geometry to accelerate into Algebra 2 (college preparatory or honors); alternatively, some students take a summer Algebra 2 class to move into Precalculus (college preparatory or Honors).
Almost all students who took the acceleration exams were freshmen and sophomores.
Aalia Puri is one of the students who took the placement test, skipping Geometry to accelerate into Algebra 2 Honors. As a freshman, she took a certified Geometry course over the summer, turned in her transcripts by the given deadline, registered for tests and took the test in the summer to get into the higher-level class.
“I actually thought the tests were pretty easy and they didn’t cover enough relevant material,” Puri said. “I learned a lot more in my summer course than was tested and I felt like the standard wasn’t high enough.”
This year sparked the beginning of what will more than likely become a permanent part of the acceleration policy at SHS, counselors say. While the policy will continue to evolve, the fundamental goal stays the same: A more thorough screening process is necessary to ensure students are placed correctly.
“We all want to do what’s best for the students. [The new policy] really comes from a place of wanting kids to be in a place where they’re going to learn math and thrive,” Allen said.
