Next year, the language arts and social studies departments will be making changes. Sophomores and juniors will have the option of taking only one accelerated world studies class or AP American studies class rather than two.
‘[Starting next year] a student doesn’t have to take the the AP American history with the AP American literature,’Â McCormick said. ‘They’re both year-long courses, but you do not have to take both at the same time.’Â
According to McCormick, a student in AP American literature now would not have to take AP American history or visa versa. The administration made the same change with accelerated world history and accelerated world literature. Sophomore students in these courses may choose which classes they wish to take.
‘If the students aren’t challenged enough, then we need to meet those needs,’Â McCormick said. ‘Challenge is what we’re about.’Â
Along with the new course split, the administration is offering a new English course to the class of 2012. Instead of choosing between AP composition or regular writing, next year’s seniors will receive a third option: college composition. The curriculum falling between AP and regular, this class is only a semester long and grants three college credits.
While this change is immediate for this school-year, another idea for a curriculum change is developing.
History teacher Richard Shrock conceived the idea of adding an additional course that fell between AP and regular curriculum for American history.
However, according to McCormick, the classes will not appear in next year’s program of studies.
‘I can’t see us doing anything next fall,’Â McCormick said. ‘ I just feel like we haven’t talked about it enough.’Â
This new course would be titled honors American history and, unlike AP or college classes, would not have a weighted scale or give out college credits.
According to this school year’s program of studies, college and AP classes provide college credit and weighted grades. The non-AP classes don’t provide any of this. In fact, some students find the non-AP classes too easy and the college courses too difficult.
AP American history teacher Craig Whitney said the class is intended for the proactive student.
‘The whole concept is designed for any student who has a genuine interest in American history,’Â Whitney said.
Current regular American history student, junior Miranda Green wishes that she had been given the opportunity to sign up for honors American history earlier. Her current curriculum isn’t challenging enough for her and the AP class might have been too hard.
‘I would take [honors American history],’Â Green said. ‘Because on college applications, honors American history will look better than regular and you will get a better knowledge of American history for your future [education] without doing a crazy amount of work.”
Principal of academic affairs Barbara McCormick feels that this honors course is a step to the future of challenging students in a new way.
‘I like when teachers get creative to meet the needs of individual students,’Â McCormick said. ‘My main focus is to ask myself, ‘will it provide the student with what their unique needs are?’
In Issue 6, the Dart published an error within this story. Accelerated courses are neither weighted nor given college credit. The Dart regrets the error.
Rebecca • Feb 22, 2011 at 2:40 pm
I agree wholeheartedly with the poster above. While it’s awesome that you’re finally splitting up the AP Lit and History classes (a case which I never understood), the lack of AP classes available is really disappointing. When I got to college I realized how disadvantaged I was without the option to take many math or science AP courses. STA prides itself on being a challenging school, but when surrounded by public school kids who have up to 20 or 30 hours of AP credit, you begin to wonder.
Help • Feb 14, 2011 at 10:00 pm
I’ll start out by saying that I’m glad the administration is paying attention to the needs of the students and realizing that they need to be challenged. However, I’m a little perturbed by the fact that it always seems like the same departments are making improvements. Coming out of STA I’m not nearly as worried about my writing, social studies, or literature background. However, I do feel a less than confident in my math, science, and foreign language background. It’s not just that fact, but also the small range of AP and honors classes we had available to us. We had the option of taking the AP language tests, however, only Latin had a legitimate AP class. Most high schools offer as far as calc 2 for the students on the fast math track, not only for the occasional student that’s miles ahead. AP classes aren’t everything; I realize that. But coming to a college where the majority of my classmates took 4-7 AP classes their senior year, (which is roughly how many AP classes we have at STA), I just think it reflects the amount we challenge our students. I remember asking about my schedule conflicts junior year and then being told, “We’re already letting you take more than two accelerated courses, that’s more than enough.” I was less than thrilled to scolded for challenging myself. It’s great that we’re improving, but a few small adjustments doesn’t change the fact that we should constantly keep striving to have the smartest students with the more rigorous curriculum. Honestly, if STA wants to be the school that it could be it should not set its standards based on the schools in Kansas City– based on the condition of the public schools–because it’s simply not high enough. I love STA so much and that’s simply why I feel the need to be critical. STA is a great school, don’t get me wrong. But the atmosphere’s getting to the point where we’re aiming for what’s just enough, instead of reaching for the full potential of the students. Yeah the laptops are a great boost for enrollment, but what does that matter if the students aren’t getting the best instruction and being pushed to their highest capacity. We can do better.