by Andrew Turk ’14
Courses ranging from AP Economics to Computer Science were added to the schedule this year to give students more options to customize their curricula.
Five new courses were incorporated into the course selection. The first, Honors English IV, taught by Mr. Pasko, allows students to choose a course of intermediate difficulty compared with the other regular and AP English classes available to seniors. Students taking Honors English IV will be encouraged to take the AP Literature exam in May.
The next two courses, AP Economics and Entrepreneurial Studies, both taught by Mr. Hess, explore the basics of economics and business. A new course called Cleveland History is being taught by Mr. Wimbiscus, and Computer Science also became an option for students as of this year. The class, taught by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Connor, will teach students how to use Java.
[pullquote]
New courses this year:
- AP Economics
- Computer Science: Java
- Honors English IV
- Entrepreneurial Studies
- Cleveland History[/pullquote]
In order to make room for the new courses, several changes were made.
AP English Language, taught by Mr. Hodermarsky and Mr. Beach, is now available to juniors as opposed to only seniors. In order to make way for the new classes, both Reading and Honors Reading were removed from the curriculum.
Science classes have a revised schedule with a standard daily timeframe. Instead of having double periods twice a week, students now sit for fifty-five minute classes every day. The other major science department shift is the promotion of Anatomy and Physiology to an honors course, now referred to as Honors Anatomy and Physiology.
Physical Education has been moved from freshman to sophomore year. Sophomores will now take Physical Education every day for one semester. Computer, which was a freshman year class for all current sophomores, juniors, and seniors, will be taught during sophomore year in order to make room for Freshman Biology.
Mr. Gavin, Dean of Academic Administration, said that most of the changes were made to give students more options in selecting classes, and that more reforms may be on the horizon.
“Next spring there will be an analysis done by a company which specializes in school schedules to provide us with information to help us determine how our school schedule might be improved to meet our current and future curricular needs,” he said.
