District to Reexamine Honors Class Policy
Acting on complaints from some Moorpark parents, the school district will reexamine the way it admits students into middle school honors classes.
Parents have complained about a policy that allows students enrolled in the Gifted and Talented Education Program (GATE) to enter fifth-grade honors classes without taking the entrance exams other students must take.
The school board has asked Supt. Thomas Duffy to examine the system by which students are tested and admitted to the classes. He is scheduled to report back to the board in August.
Marilyn Green, the school district’s special projects coordinator, said while current GATE students do not need to take an entrance test for the honors classes, they have already undergone a series of academic achievement and aptitude tests to get into the GATE program.
The district does not limit the number of students it accepts into its honors classes, she said, so the GATE students will not crowd out other students who pass the tests.
Green added that GATE students must receive A’s for at least three of four quarters in an honors class before they can enroll the following year without taking the entrance tests.
“They don’t get a free ride,” she said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
