At Farragut Middle School and Hastings High school, opportunities for early acceleration are limited. In eighth grade, students may accelerate in world language, science, and possibly math. Once in high school, math is the only subject that offers an honors pathway before junior year, while, according to the Hastings High School Program of Studies, English and social studies follow a required, common sequence for all students through at least tenth grade. For example, freshman year of high school, students take Algebra I, Geometry, or Geometry Honors, depending on their acceleration level, while English 9 is the required option for all students. While this system in part may be due to Hastings High School’s small class size, it does raise the question: why are some subjects chosen for acceleration and honors pathways over others?
As HHS Principal Andy Clayman states, “the required coursework is determined by the state.” According to the Program of Studies for 2026-2027, students are required by New York State to pass five Regents exams before graduating high school: English Language Arts, US History, World History, one in any math, and one in any lab science. The greater flexibility in math and science testing requirements could explain in part why there are more underclassmen class options for those subjects. Still, there could be more options for flexibility in classes before junior year. For example, Juniors at HHS take the English Language Arts and World History Regents regardless of what English and History class they are in. Students could still get their required regents exam credits in English and History while taking more varied classes. Mr. Clayman shares that “there’s flexibility with each school in how they design [the courses they offer],” and ultimately “teachers themselves are the ones who design the courses,” so they “are the ones who have a lot of input on the progression.” As Assistant Superintendent Melissa Szymanski explains, “the intersection of graduation requirements, access to advanced coursework in the high school to support specialization at the college level, staffing, and budgetary considerations all play a strong role in decisions related to where acceleration options may occur.” Mr. Clayman also emphasises the importance of “building a more heterogeneous classroom,” focusing on “the value of diverse learners and diverse skill sets.”
For students who demonstrate readiness outside of the standard pathway, especially in the humanities, Mr. Clayman says that “there are elective courses that they can choose to extend their learning within those subject areas.” Dr. Szymanski adds that “there are rare occasions that we may deviate from our pathway to ensure that we are meeting the needs of a student, however this differentiation would typically occur within one of the currently existing offerings.”
While Mr. Clayman is “not aware” if the district has ever considered expanding early acceleration or honors pathways to a larger range of subjects, when asked about potential expansion of course options in the humanities, he explained a system he has used in the past which would involve underclassmen classes where “all students in the class would experience the curriculum that is part of that course,” but “there would be differentiation for students who have less academic readiness for it.” He explains that “for students who want to actually get the external credit, they would have additional responsibilities.” For example, “if they’re doing a research paper, students seeking credit might have a ten-page research paper, while others might have a five-page paper.” That way, “they’re all doing a research paper [and] they’re all building research skills,” just at different levels. Though he admits “it is more challenging for teachers, because they’re navigating different sets of assignments within the same class,” he has “seen [the system] work” in the past, and he likes this specific method because, as he says, “you get the benefits of heterogeneous grouping, while also allowing students who want to extend themselves to earn college credit or transcript recognition for increased rigor.”
For students seeking an extra challenge in the humanities courses, there is a new honors English elective, open to all grades, that is pending approval for the 2026-2027 school year. Mr. Clayman shares that the course, titled Eastern Perspectives on Global Events Through Literature, “started with a request from students [because] the students in the Affinity Club were requesting a course that specialized in more diverse voices.” These students eventually “put together a petition” and submitted it to Mr. Clayman, who then “had conversations with Dr. Szymanski [and] with Ms. Walters as the English chair” in order to “determine what the most appropriate course would look like.” The course, which is set to be taught by Cid Greenberg, an HHS English teacher, is described in the Program of Studies as an “honors-level semester-long course [that] explores four pivotal events that reshaped our world over the past 60 years,” with the end goal being that “students will develop cultural empathy, challenge the Western hegemony, and understand that experience with global events often depends on one’s linguistic, spiritual, historical, economic, political, and social context.”
As Dr. Szymanski notes, “the district is constantly in pursuit of optimizing pathways for students,” including “consideration and discussion of expanding and/or shifting our pathways.” For now, Hastings High School’s approach reflects a balance among state requirements, staffing, and a commitment to heterogeneous classrooms. Whether that balance will evolve to include broader early acceleration in the humanities remains an open question—one shaped not only by policy, but by student interest, teacher capacity, and the district’s educational priorities.
