Rachel Glantzberg School Administration/Curriculum Advisors

Leveled Classes

You’re in the back of a classroom evaluating a teacher.​ You see a student look at the board. A series of
cluttered numbers appear in front of them as they try to take notes on seemingly impossible information.
Pressure rides on their shoulders because with one more failing test grade, they will need to take summer
classes.​ The student next to them is half-asleep because the topics taught are so easy that they are struggling
to stay awake. Their work ethic is awful because even with minimal studying, they know that they will ace the
test. Though your attention may be on the teacher rather than the students, if you even glance for a moment at
the facial expressions painted upon most students, this disparity among students grasp of topics is evident. ​As
a middle schooler,​ I witness this phenomenon daily. Leveled classes are imperative in ensuring that no student
has to endure such a harrowing academic experience as the one above.

Through grade 7, Millstone Middle School only offers math as a leveled class, and students make the
inference that math is more important than other core classes. Due to this, students study more for math,
attend math LEHP most often, and do whatever it takes to reach their ideal placement or retain their
placement. I can attest to all of these things ​due to my placement in an advanced math class.​ Whereas in other
core classes, I glance over my notes a day before a test, I start reviewing the day a test is announced in math
to ensure I achieve an ideal grade. I also attend math LEHP whenever possible and will even stay up late to
study. But this focus on math does not apply to the workforce that school should be preparing us for. We need
Language Arts to communicate, Social Studies to ensure our mistakes from the past never occur again, and
Science to solve modern issues like cancer and climate change. Math is no more important than any other
core class. Due to the fact that only math is leveled, students feel compelled to focus on math more so than
other educational endeavors.

Leveled classes definitely increase student’s academic focus. When a policy of annual placement
testing is instituted, students will most certainly study for these tests to achieve their academic potential. With
the notion that 8th-grade language arts is leveled, I, ​as a middle schooler myself,​ have noticed a significant
increase in focus in class, and have noticed that students read more frequently. If the reading charts in Mr.
Bittner’s room are any indication, students are certainly inclined to outperform their peers in any and every way
possible. They are urged to go above and beyond in their efforts to achieve optimal placement. If leveled
classes have had astounding effects in both math and language arts, it would be in the best interests of
administrators to level ​all​ core classes.

Leveled learning is undoubtedly is more student-oriented and personalized. Picture a top-level science
class. The teacher isn’t talking about simple geology that the students have already mastered in half of the
regular time allotted for this topic. Students shoot their hands up to share their knowledge of the Periodic Table
of Elements that was scheduled to be learned in the following year. Now picture a science class for those
challenged by this subject. Students express no timidity in raising their hands or participating because they
won’t receive scoffing from fellow classmates​ like they did when they were integrated with advanced students.
The teacher focuses on convection currents in their geology unit because on the pre-test they have
administered to their students, this was the topics students struggled with the most. Sounds like the perfect
classroom setup, right? If we just make simple adjustments to our current classroom structure, this is an easily
achievable feat.

All core classes require leveled learning to stress the importance of ​every​ class to pupils, motivate
students academically, and tailor learning to suit the individual needs of every child. Every student should be
Rachel Glantzberg School Administration/Curriculum Advisors
afforded the opportunity to achieve their academic potential at Millstone Township Middle School with leveled
classes. ​School is intended to be a lively environment where the satisfaction of the acquisition of knowledge is
expressed daily. However, when children return home with tears in their eyes because they struggle with what
is taught, their positive outlook regarding school is forever distorted.