Does the New Science Curriculum Meet College Admissions Requirements?

One of the concerns of many parents familiar with the traditional admissions requirements for technical majors (1 year each of biology, chemistry, and physics), is whether colleges will accept students from Portage who have, say, 2 and a half years of one science but only a semester of each of the other two. On the PortagePS web site this question was addressed by Ric Perry and he describes interviews he did with folks at Kalamazoo College, The University of Michigan (U of M), Michigan State University (MSU), Western Michigan University Lee Honors College, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The folks Ric spoke with indicated they didn't care what type of science the students had as long as it was good science. At the parent informational meetings, Ric also indicated the four Michigan schools were already quite familiar with Portage students and knew they were usually well prepared now.

While it's true that more and more colleges have gone to a more "holistic" type of admissions evaluation, there are sure to be cases where one of our students is "on the bubble", and concerned parents have to wonder whether only having one semester of Biology (or whichever science) will be an advantage or disadvantage (will the hurried reviewer even notice the 2 and a half years of one of the other sciences?). They have to wonder whether the person making that decision about their child's future is the same as the person Ric interviewed on the phone, or someone with a different view. They also have to wonder if the out-of-state university their son or daughter applied to has the same philosophy as MIT and the in-state schools Ric interviewed. Finally, even if their child is accepted, they have to wonder whether their child will be academically prepared to succeed in the variety of subjects they'll be challenged with the next four years.

One of the CIC members wondered if the answers coming from the admissions officers may have been biased by the leading way the questions may have been asked, and on October 16 suggested specific and repeatable wording for unbiased questions (click here). She then contacted officials from four colleges and summarized her findings in an email to the CIC on October 20 as copied below. The information she obtained revealed considerably more concern about the curriculum change than was indicated on the PortagePS web site.

Since our time will be limited at CIC, I am sharing some information with you in advance for your consideration.

Last week, Ric Perry sent us a letter summarizing the conversations he had with University personnel regarding the proposed curriculum changes. I have followed up with those Universities and summarized the results for your consideration. You will see that there is some concern that the proposed plan could negatively impact students as they prepare to enter college.

Although this input is interesting to consider, it only focuses on college-bound students, which is important, but leaves out an important set of students. I still believe that the most important source of data we can pursue to project the probability of success of this new approach is other high schools. There is a school in our socio-economic peer group, which has higher MEAP science scores, SAT science scores, ACT science scores and AP science scores. Their progress with economically disadvantaged students is impressive as well. If you are interested in knowing what they are doing, please feel free to call me at 345-0112 or send me an e-mail. The contact at this school has agreed to answer additional questions and send us information if we request it.

Here are the University contacts. Again, every one of them agreed that I could use their full name, job title and phone number and encouraged us to call again if they can be of further assistance.

• Western Michigan University- Randy Locke, Asst. Director of Admissions 387-2000 (I did not recontact Lees Honors College.)
• Kalamazoo College - Dick Van Antwerp - Admissions 337-7166
• U of Michigan - Mara Flaminbaum- Admissions Counselor 734-936-3822 is who I talked to. Dwan Kemery - Admissions for Kalamazoo County is who we should call for follow-up 734-936-2463. (The person Ric Perry spoke to is an intern in the admissions office. The secretary said it would be more appropriate to speak with an admissions counselor.)
• Hillsdale College - Dr. Lee Ann Baron - 517-607-2466, Professor of Chemistry, Curriculum designer K-12 for Hillsdale Academy.

I did my very best not to bias the interviews with University personnel. Here is how I asked the question:

"We are looking at two strategies for sequencing our high school science courses and would like your opinion as to which would be better preparation for college-bound students. In one design, students would take a full year of each of the sciences, biology, and physics and chemistry, plus a fourth year of one of those sciences as an IB focus. In the other design, an IB student would have one semester of each, chemistry and physics as freshmen, biology and earth science as sophomores, them two full years of their choice, biology, chemistry or physics."

(I realize some have suggested that students can take more sciences, doubling up in their junior and senior year. Although this is possible, it does not seem fair to use that as the standard model.) And, as Ric said in his letter, the Universities make no guarantees regarding this opinion. It is just an opinion based on what they know makes sense from their experience. It remains our responsibility to ensure that our students are prepared for college and can do well on the SAT and ACT exams.

• Western - It would be best if students could pick from both. Non-science oriented students would do well to get all four sciences, but Chemistry and Physics are especially difficult at the college level. One semester just doesn't seem to be enough to prepares a science-oriented student.
• K College - It seems either approach could work, and offering honors courses is a plus. Since K College accepts students from all over, and many do not have AP or IB, the college starts at a pretty basic level for all students with a Science I course.
• U of Mich - It seems you would be putting your students at a disadvantage if you only give them one semester of any of the three core sciences, biology, chemistry and physics. Maybe it would work, but it seems like it would not be enough especially for Engineering or medical oriented students.
• Hillsdale College - I contacted them because I had heard of an experiment they are doing. They have established a K-12 Academy with a curriculum designed with a focus toward preparing students for college. I spoke with Dr. Baron who was responsible for the K-12 Science Curriculum design. She is very enthusiastic and willing to share more with us. Basically, she said even though Michigan Benchmarks have Earth Science at a high school level, it is covered so much K-8 that it is not needed at the high school level. (This is substantiated by our own Science MEAP scores which shows Earth Science as one of the highest scores for our students, where as physics and chemistry are lower.) She also noted that very few students study Earth Science in college, and generally, ES is more of a social science than a hard science. Hard sciences offer better life learning for ALL students, college bound or not. She had much more to say, so if you are interested, let me know.

I realize this is long and you may feel inundated with information, but this is a very important change we are considering and we need to do our homework to make certain it is in the best interest of all our students.

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