Advanced Placement

The AP English Language and Composition course focuses on the development and revision of evidence-based analytic and argumentative writing, the rhetorical analysis of nonfiction texts, and the decisions writers make as they compose and revise. Students evaluate, synthesize, and cite research to support their arguments. Additionally, they read and analyze rhetorical elements and their effects in nonfiction texts—including images as forms of text— from a range of disciplines and historical periods.

In this course students explore the operations and structure of the U.S. government and the behavior of the electorate and politicians. Students gain the analytical perspective necessary to evaluate political data, hypotheses, concepts, opinions, and processes and learn how to gather data about political behavior and develop their own theoretical analysis of American politics. Students also build the skills they need to examine general propositions about government and politics, and to analyze specific relationships between political, social, and economic institutions. Students prepare for the AP Exam and for further study in political science, law, education, business, and history. The course may be face-to-face or online.

Pre-requisites: students must have taken at least one year of high school algebra and successfully completed a high school earth science.

Environmental Science is an introductory college-level Science course. This course aims to provide students with scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies needed to understand interrelationships in the natural world; identify and analyze environmental problems (natural and human-made); evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems; and examine alternative solutions to resolve or prevent these problems. Unifying themes in the course, identified by the College Board, provide a foundation for the content. The course views environmental problems and possible solutions to them through the lens of sustainability, which is the integrating theme of the textbook. Material is based on the belief that most people can live comfortably and fulfilling lives, and that societies will be more prosperous and peaceful, when sustainability becomes one of the chief measures by which personal choices and public policies are developed. The resources for the course go beyond the traditional “lift and shift” model by creating a unique learning path of relevant readings, multimedia, and activities that move students up the learning taxonomy from basic knowledge and comprehension to analysis and application. The course may be face-to-face or online.

The AP Spanish Language and Culture course takes a holistic approach to language proficiency and recognizes the complex interrelatedness of comprehension and comprehensibility, vocabulary usage, language control, communication strategies, and cultural awareness. Students will learn language structures in context and use them to convey meaning. In standards-based world language classrooms, the instructional focus is on function and not the examination of irregularity and complex grammatical paradigms about the target language. Language structures will be addressed according to how they serve the communicative task and not as an end goal unto themselves. The AP Spanish Language and Culture course strives to promote both fluency and accuracy in language use and avoid overemphasis on grammatical accuracy at the expense of communication. In order to best facilitate the study of language and culture, the course should be taught primarily in the target language.