Government and Economic are required for all high school students in District Five to take; most students take these courses during their senior year.  Students at Chapin High School have the option to choose between Advanced Placement(AP) or College Prep(CP) Gov/Econ. But other District Five schools have the option to take Honors classes.  Juniors were given a survey asking why they thought Honors Gov/Econ is not offered and if they knew that honors were offered at other schools. 

The reason many people are annoyed about not having a honors Gov/Econ is because CP teachers tend to give honors or AP level work for a CP weighted class and some that are in a CP class feel that they are too prepared for CP but not prepared for AP. Those that struggle in history take CP Gov/Econ, but since there is no honors class, teachers may pick up slack and teach at a higher level than some are comfortable with. This is why Chapin needs an honors class. If there was a honors class, the difficulty level would be more balanced.

When asked why she thought Gov/Econ honors was not an available class at Chapin High School, Hunter Meredith said, “I think it is unavailable because we do not have enough teachers or those who are interested in teaching it at an honors level.  I think it is annoying because I feel like I am doing honors level work, but only receiving a CP credit.”

Abby Kibler, who is in AP Gov/Econ said, “I think we don’t have an honors class because we are really understaffed.  Have you ever noticed how multiple teachers can teach AP United States, AP World History, AP Human Geography, etc., but only one teacher at Chapin can teach AP Gov/Econ?  This comes as a result of being understaffed and not having teachers who are willing to get AP certified. If teachers really object to getting AP certified you would think we would have an honors class since it is easier to teach than AP.”

But when asked, Mr. Ames said, “The reason they did not have an honors class was to support the AP program and build AP scores.”

When asked if she thought kids who normally would take Honors went up to AP, Kibler said, “More kids who would normally take Honors take the CP class because they don’t want a hard AP class their senior year, but I think if we had an honors class, more kids would take it.  There’s only like 30 of us combined in AP Gov/Econ, but there’s 335 in our grade. That really says something.”

Current seniors will not benefit from Mr.Ames’ new policies, “I want to change [the honors] for next year. I want to give that additional level, not just for government and economics but for other subjects for students that want that extra level.”