The start of the new school year marks an exciting expansion to the high school’s academic curriculum with the addition of two new Advanced Placement (AP) courses: AP Language and Composition (AP Lang) and AP Modern World History. AP Lang is currently being offered this school year while AP Modern World History will begin in the fall of 2025.
Adding these two new AP courses to the curriculum will provide students with the opportunity to take college-level humanities courses that qualify for college credit across the country.
AP Lang is an introductory course to writing composition at the college level. This course places a strong emphasis on nonfiction reading and essay writing, differentiating it from the 11 Honors English course that primarily focuses on literary fiction novels, short stories, poems, and plays.
“Skill-wise, there’s definitely an overlap, but the main difference is that in AP Lang, the big focus is on rhetoric. Although 11 Honors English definitely introduces students to [rhetoric], it’s not the overarching focus of the year,” said English Department Chair Mr. John Finneron.
Finneron also explained that the addition of AP Lang to the curriculum was an initiative that began almost two years ago through collective requests from students and staff members who expressed interest in offering the course.
“We wanted to do everything properly and not just add [AP Lang] just for the sake of having an AP,” said Finneron.
The addition of AP Lang was not because the high school’s previous English curriculum was not rigorous enough, but rather to open up a new space for students to explore passions in the art of speech and rhetoric that, in the past, were not covered in as much depth.
Dr. Jamie Chisum, the high school’s principal, expressed a similar goal of providing students with a wider range of opportunities to make the high school a home where students feel excited to come in every morning.
“For some kids, they might be like, ‘I never thought I was an English student, but when I took AP Lang, I loved rhetoric. I loved writing speeches. Who knew?’ So if we find that for a kid, and we find another dimension that we didn’t have, and that’s going to be the place that some kid gets really excited about learning, I’m thrilled. That’s the magic. That’s what we’re looking for,” said Chisum.
AP Lang also offers students a chance to find greater enjoyment in English by focusing on areas that some students may find more engaging.
“I chose to take AP Lang because there was less reading involved. I tend to like writing more than reading, and AP Lang focuses on that, which is great,” said Neha Guruprasad ’25.
Currently, AP Lang is available to both juniors and seniors, allowing seniors to take the course this year since it was not previously offered. In the future, however, it will be designated as a junior-only course.
Joining AP Lang in the next school year is AP Modern World History which covers global events across the world over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This course requires students to not just memorize information, but also critically think about the relationships and patterns across various societies throughout history. The new AP Modern World History is set to replace the current Honors Modern World History for sophomores because the two curriculums are very similar. The main difference is in the pace and amount of material that needs to be covered in order to adequately prepare students for the AP exam.
Some of the Honors Modern World History classes at the high school have started experimenting with the AP Modern World History curriculum by conducting a trial period, teaching this year’s Honors Modern World History classes as if they were AP classes. Students in these courses will be prepared to take the AP Modern World History exam at the end of the year.
Secil Uluderya ’27, a student in one of the Honors Modern World History classes experimenting with this new curriculum shared her thoughts on the addition of AP Modern World History in the coming year.
“I think that adding [AP Modern World History] is a good thing. It’s a well-prepared course that’s mostly very similar to Honors Modern World History, so having the opportunity to benefit from the hard work that you show throughout the year is good for a lot of students,” said Uluderya.
The main change in AP Modern World History will be the greater focus on writing. Because the writing component of the AP Modern World History exam is highly specific, forms of writing such as document-based questions, long essay questions, and short essay questions will need to be practiced in ways that would not normally be required in a standard Honors Modern World History course.
Overall, students and administrators see the addition of the two new AP courses as a valuable opportunity for student growth, providing students with experiences that will allow them to cultivate their interests and further their intellectual development.
“At the end of the day, English and history are still important even if they are not for an AP exam, but I do think that [adding the AP courses] is worth it,” said Uluderya.