Committee will explore need for AP, honors class changes

By Leigh Ann Maze

With more and more top universities expecting applicants to have completed Advanced Placement and honors classes, questions have arisen over the number and availability of the classes at Los Gatos High School.

Although LGHS has a larger and more extensive AP and honors program than most public high schools in California, offering 21 classes in seven subject areas, parents have voiced concern that some children capable of taking the classes were unable to participate due to stringent requirements, schedule conflicts or space limitations.

Principal Trudy McCulloch has responded by asking Assistant Principal Kathleen Eaton, who is the AP and honors program director, to form a committee to explore the issue and suggest possible changes in the programs.

"We're not looking to completely overhaul the system," Eaton said. "It is a very successful system, we just want to tweak it a little, and make it better if we can." The AP classes, which give students who pass extra points on their grade-point average, has allowed some valedictorians to leave LGHS with GPAs as high as 4.60.

The 20-member review committee is made up of parents, students, faculty and academic advisers. At the first meeting Dec. 8, the academic advisers and parents were given the stage to voice their concerns. They suggested that access to the programs, which is based on grades in prerequisite classes, should be reviewed. One parent said that her daughter was bumped from an AP English course with an 84 percent in a prerequisite class, and she thinks the standard was too high. Several people suggested the committee should consider teacher recommendations rather than objective standards for enrollment in the classes.

Qualified students have raised concerns that due to conflicts in AP and honors class scheduling, they have had to choose one class over another, when they would have liked to take both. Some AP programs are team-taught and blocked over two class periods, so unless students have two consecutive class periods free, they are unable to take the class.

The curriculum in an AP class is geared toward students taking and passing a test at the end of the year. If a student passes the test with a mark of at least three of five possible points, he or she receives college credit. In contrast, an honors class is not geared toward a final test; it is simply an accelerated class. Concern was voiced that some courses labeled as "AP" do not follow the AP test-oriented curriculum and should be more appropriately labeled as "honors" courses.

At its next meeting Jan. 12, the committee will hear the concerns of the students and teachers. Eaton said after all issues are identified, she hopes to break the committee down into smaller groups to tackle the issues. Her goal is to give suggestions on improving the system to Principal McCulloch by the end of the school year.

The number of students taking and passing the AP tests has increased dramatically in recent years. Although the number of graduating students dropped from 372 in the class of 1989 to 316 in the class of 1999, the number of AP tests taken at LGHS increased by 75 percent during the same period, according to a LGHS report. The percentage of students passing the AP exams has also steadily increased, according to Eaton, who saw 89 percent of the AP tests passed last year.

Eaton attributes the growing success of the program to many social forces from socio-economics to excellent teaching and "a community that is very education conscious." Not to mention the tightening competition to gain entrance into top colleges and universities.

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