Dupage Policy Journal

The Downers Grove School District Board of Education examined its curriculum and class sections for the 2023-24 school year at its March 20 meeting.

Assistant Superintendent of Staffing Robert Lang explained to the board that students had recently completed their course selections for fall 2023 and that the district was making schedules to meet their requests as closely as possible while making staffing changes based on different levels of interest in different areas. Associate Superintendent for Student Learning Gina Ziccardi discussed some of the courses that had seen a drop in student interest. Generally speaking, any classes with under 20 scheduled students are recommended for cancellation.

However, some courses with under 20 students will still be held next year, either because they were deemed too close to the cutoff mark or because they historically tend to hover around it. The district expects to cut some elective English and fine arts courses from each high school, as well as a P.E. course, an advanced French course, and a science elective. The district is taking a new approach to its AP music theory course. While it doesn't have enough students at either campus to justify having one class each, one teacher will go between campuses while also utilizing online lessons to teach both classes as a sort of "joint class."

"So overall, we've seen a decline in world languages over the years as there's been increased interest in a variety of electives, but especially in CTE is where a lot of students move from those electives in world language over to election electives and CTE," said District Superintendent Dr. Hank Thiele. "So the decline in French and other world languages is across the board."

The principals of South High and North High Schools also appeared at the meeting to discuss changes made to electives at their schools. The tech programs are growing more popular in the district, with South High offering a new keyboarding technology dual credit course for the first time in fall 2023, the addition of a new, fourth AP computer science course, and an additional section to the engineering program capstone course. Overall, enrollments in electives in general, including tech, languages, and arts, have remained steady over the years. North High is also expanding its list of science electives in fall 2023 and is seeing growth in its culinary and fine arts programs such as ceramics.