West Seattle High School reversed itself and will offer a ninth-grade honors program next year after all.

"I am pleased to announce that, following discussions with our WSHS community and senior leadership of Seattle Public Schools, WSHS will indeed offer two ninth-grade honors houses for 2006-2007," wrote Principal Susan Ders/ on the school's website. Ders/ did not return calls asking for comment.

Last month, the principal and faculty decided not to offer a separate honors program for incoming ninth-graders next year. School officials read the Smaller Learning Communities federal grant that pays for some of the honors program requires that students of all achievement levels be allowed into the program.

West Seattle High officials interpreted that to mean they could not place the brightest students together in a separate honors class. So school administrators canceled the ninth-grade honors program after numerous honors students had signed up for West Seattle High School specifically because it offered the honors program.

"My understanding was that the honors house would be a violation and so I proposed a series of options," explained Ders/ in her website statement. "Understandably, students and families expected that the programs described at the time of enrollment would be available in the fall."

School district officials checked with the U.S. Department of Education to clarify the requirements of the school's Smaller Learning Communities grant and learned the federal money could be used to support honors classes as long as students are not placed in the classes based upon tests or grades, Ders/ wrote.

"In fact, students have self-selected into these challenging programs," she said.

Teachers will customize their educational approaches and techniques to each individual student "when students are randomly assigned to ninth-grade houses in fall 2007," Ders/ wrote.

The reversal came as good news to parents of eighth-grade honors students signed up to attend West Seattle High School next fall. However, parents now worry that the honors program will dry up the following year when their children are sophomores, said Kevin Lorensen, father of one of next year's freshmen.

School administrators and teachers sometimes strain to meet the program requirements of grants, he said. Meeting those requirements can turn school curriculum in directions that parents and the general community might not support.

Lorensen thinks the school hasn't lived up to another requirement of the federal grant, that of consulting with the public.

"Does the community really want West Seattle High School not to have an honors program?" he asked. Getting feedback from people is important.

"That aligns the mission of the school with the values of the community," Lorensen said.

Eliminating the honors program and replacing it with advanced instruction customized to individual honors students within a general classroom is part of a national trend in education called "differentiated instruction," Lorensen said.

"It has the smell of fashion more than anything else," he said.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.