Papillion La Vista Community Schools believes that AP options are more beneficial to students than honors, so social studies and English honors classes that have similar AP alternatives at the same grade level have been eliminated.
“[W]e encourage our students to participate in both honors and AP. However, when there is a choice that needs to be made between the two, we will push for the Advanced Placement option,” Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Shureen Seery explained in a written statement responding to a Titan Legacy request for an interview.
Both Seery and Papio South Principal Jeff Spilker clarified that changing the availability of honors classes was a decision driven by the proportion of the high school’s graduates who choose to attend college: approximately 75-80%, according to Spilker.
“There are two main reasons for this decision,” Seery said. “One, there is educational research showing a direct correlation between students’ success in post-secondary education and their participation in AP coursework and testing in high school.
The second reason: AP courses are nationally determined by the College Board and are recognized more consistently as advanced courses on a transcript.”
“Honors was a big comfort zone,” Spilker added. “…So I think this will encourage a few more students to maybe choose that little bit more challenging route that will help best prepare them for what they’ll experience at a college level.”
This decision took place through the district’s Toolbox process, which involves teachers from both high schools meeting to adjust their curriculum to follow state standards while being up-to-date.
Social studies went through Toolbox in the 2022 school year, while English went through Toolbox this school year so that curriculum changes can be implemented next year.
In the social studies department, seven sections of Honors World Civilization and four sections of Honors American Government that were available last year are now gone. The amount of sections for a class is based on how many students sign up to take the class.
Because government is a semester-long class, government teacher and department head Ray Keller has taught a full class cycle without honors. Keller took steps to move elements from his former honors class into on-level American Government.
“[O]ne of the units that we really made sure that we put into American Government was making sure that we had a unit on participation in American politics and in American life,” Keller said. “The other thing was we made sure that we had the civic engagement project in there as well, which was the one where students are asked to observe a public meeting, a government meeting and then do a reflection on it.”
The only classes in the English department that are affected by this change are Honors English 11 and Honors British Literature. Of the 15 total sections of non-AP junior English classes offered this year, 4 are honors and will not be available next year.
English department head and Honors British Literature teacher Pete Goecke has confirmed that his British Literature class will return next year as an on-level class.
“There will be an on-level British literature… But the pacing will be slower, there’ll be a little bit fewer writing assignments, the daily reading assignments will have to be shortened, and we just won’t get through as much curriculum,” Goecke said. “…It’ll still be very, very valuable. But it feels like a little part of me is dying because I’ve spent so long doing this, building up this class, and I don’t want to say being taken away but it’s being changed.”
In the absence of honors options at the junior and senior level for English and social studies, loading up on AP classes has the draw of being the only available bonus to GPA, which is a major concern for some college-bound students.
Despite that temptation, Assistant Principal Brent Gehring, who puts together the master schedule of classes for Papio South, urges students to avoid getting caught up in GPA weighting. Honors courses are weighted at 4.5, AP classes at 5.0, and on-level classes at 4.0. Students can still achieve the 4.5 weight by taking an AP English or social studies course and opting for on-level in the other, with the GPA weights averaging to the honors level, 4.5.
“My biggest suggestion that I would give for kids is to challenge yourself, but make sure that you are balanced at the same time. For teachers, you want to have a work-life balance. For students, you want to have a homework-life balance, where you have the time to be with your family, you have time to go to activities and be involved in activities,” Gehring said
Changes such as those point to school administrators’ belief that removing honors classes that have AP alternatives will have a positive impact on the educational challenge of on-level classes.
“We experienced some growing pains of students that may not have been ready for the AP rigor, as well as the overall demographic that’s in our regular on-level classes has shifted a little bit,” Gehring said. “And I hope that it is benefiting all students throughout our building. … [I]t’s good … to have a diverse type of student in your class. You have students that think differently, ask questions differently, and challenge you differently. And every time that you are challenged, I think it’s a good thing.”
