By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Seeking to clarify some course requirements and to add new courses to meet state graduation requirements, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District’s Board of Education has approved a revised “program of studies” for the 2017-18 school year.
To help meet the state requirement that calls for students to take a half-year course in financial literacy, the district is adding a new course — Advanced Placement Microeconomics. It will be offered to students in grades 11 and 12.
The district already offers two courses that meet the requirement, but they are full-year courses — International Business and Cultures for students in grades 10-12, and Economics and Social Problems in American Society for students in grades 11-12. It also offers a half-year course entitled Financial Literacy in grades nine-12.
School board member Dana Krug said she expected the AP Microeconomics course to be popular, because it meets the requirements for financial literacy. Offering an Advance Placement course in microeconomics is part of the trend in offering college-level course work in many subjects, she said.
However, the district was lacking in offering Advanced Placement courses in the social studies area, Ms. Krug said. To fill the void, the district approved the addition of AP Psychology for the 2016-17 school year, plus AP Comparative Government and Global Studies.
To satisfy the state requirement for fine and performing arts, the district is expanding the course offerings to include Theater Arts. It replaces the Speech/Drama class, and will be offered to students in grades nine-12. It is included in the newly-created Theater Department.
“With this course, the district expands the offerings for this requirement beyond music and fine art to include the performing arts,” Ms. Krug said. “This will allow those students with an interest in theater and performance to meet the state requirement by taking this course.”
The school board also approved some minor changes — from specifying the courses students need to take before they can take AP Studio Art, to changing the name of the Architectural Design and Fabrication course to “Engineering Design and Fabrication.” The content is unchanged.
The changes approved by the school board are part of overall tweaks to the program of studies offered at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North and West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South.
Over the course of the last five to six years, the school board has approved some important changes that continue to strengthen the learning opportunities for students, Ms. Krug said.
“Because many of you see these changes year by year in a piecemeal fashion, I believe it is important to provide a synopsis of some of the improvements made to the high school program of studies over the past several years,” she said.
Those changes have been constructed around student interest, rigorous educational standards, state requirements, parent and community input and preparing students for post-high school education and careers, Ms. Krug said.
Among those changes is the offering of a World History honors course (in addition to the standard World History course), which allows students “with a strong interest in social studies to learn more about world history in a deeper manner with a more rigorous set of expectations,” she said.
The Engineering Department was created for the 2014-15 school year and offers two courses — Principles of Engineering, and Architectural Design and Fabrication. “These classes meet the ’21st Century Life and Careers’ state requirement,” she said.
The school board also made some revisions to some of the math courses. To take Pre-Calculus, a student must have scored 70 percent in the first semester of Advanced Algebra II, or complete either Advanced Algebra II Honors or Algebra and Trigonometry.
Also, some changes have been made to the sequence of AP Calculous courses over the past few years, Ms. Krug said.
Students can decide whether they want to take AP Calculus AB or to take AP Calculus BC by taking the “A” part of the course during the summer. Students who take AP Calculus AB can take Multivariable Calculus the following year, she said.
