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I’ve been teaching for 28 years and many of those years to incoming freshman. I’m just stunned at the reduction of English classes that will be offered at the 6-8 grades. I’m not sure if it affects sixth grade but our incoming students need as much English as they can get. The expectations at the high school begin from day one . Of course we get students who are not on grade level but we cannot afford to go backwards. More of our students are taking AP level classes. We are continuing to improve the CAPT and SAT scores and they both have a reading and writing component. This is a serious mistake. I don’t teach English, but they are my Humanities counterpart. I too teach reading and writing skills, we all need to, but the foundation must come from the English departments.
Yes, these are difficult times, but we must be wise where the cuts in spending are. Please reconsider what I perceive as having huge ramifications down the road.