Maeson Wagner, News Editor
@mwagnercourant
In October of 2019, the College Board announced that AP World: Modern is going to replace the current AP World class, shifting the course from two years to one year and for sophomores only. As a result, all incoming freshmen are going to be taking the same world history class without honors or AP distinction. According to the head of the History Department Robert Stevenson, AP World: Modern course covers only later material, starting with the 1200s and continuing on.
However, this new transition is still in the planning stages.“We’re doing curriculum writing to revise the course and make sure it’s a course for all students to be working at their highest level and towards a common set of skills,” he said. “The rewrite is more about that than about changing content.”
This new course for freshmen will provide challenges to those interested in advancing onto the AP World: Modern course. “Global I does currently have challenges for students, so we’re going to focus on beefing up those challenges for students who want them,” he said. “This will help teachers get a good sense of their readiness to tackle the advanced work of AP World: Modern.”
Guidance counselor Jane Mitchell is excited to see that there will be a new course in place available to all freshmen. “I am pleased that we are offering a course to all freshmen,” she said. “This course will help students improve note-taking and critical reading skills. These are skills that are important for most courses in high school, not just history.”
In the past, taking AP World I as a freshman has been difficult for many students. “World history, in general, is a very content-rich course and is much more work than freshmen have experienced in middle school,” said Ms. Mitchell.
Teachers will also now have an entire school year in order to help students gauge their readiness for advanced work in social studies. “The longer period is helpful for students who take longer to resettle into academics after the summer,” said Ms. Mitchell.
Although there is already a path in place for students to move into AP History, the History Department is attempting to make that path more explicit. “The path to AP History from grade-level courses is already there,” he said. “We want to make sure that path is more formal and more of a discussion between teachers and students based on looking at actual work in World History I rather than just a performance on a February test in eighth grade.”
