By Eva Carroll – Staff Reporter

College Board is a non-profit organization which aims to expand access to higher education. In opposition to standard prep courses, College Board offers college-level classes to high school students in what is known as Advanced Placement courses (AP courses). At Jonathan Law High School, AP courses are available to grades 10-12. Most of these courses require students to take prerequisite courses during their years as underclassmen. A total of four APs are offered to sophomores at Jonathan Law: AP Computer Science Principles, AP United States History, AP Spanish Language, and AP Government and Politics. 

More Advanced Placement courses should be made available to sophomores because they facilitate successful futures. AP European History, AP Environmental Science, and AP Biology are AP courses that should be added to sophomore course selections. These AP courses fit better in sophomore year because they branch off of topics taught in the Freshmen curriculum. AP courses improve chances of college acceptance as well. These courses may pave and build possible career paths for sophomores.

Some AP courses provided at Law make more sense to take during sophomore year, for they align with topics taught in the freshman curriculum. For example, sophomores could smoothly transition to AP European History (AP Euro) from World History taught in freshman year. College Board lists units taught in AP Euro, and among them are the European Renaissance and Reformation Era. Freshmen study both of these units in World History. In addition, World History dedicates two units to the World Wars and one unit to the Cold War, which are significant topics in AP European History as well. As one may note, lots of these units overlap, which will provide some prior knowledge for sophomores taking AP Euro. Consequently, sophomores would be aided in retaining the course material and succeeding in the class. This knowledge serves a greater advantage for sophomores than upperclassmen because upperclassmen may have forgotten important events and facts from Freshman year over time.  More examples of fitting AP courses are AP Environmental Science and AP Biology, which are stemmed from the basics taught during freshman year in The Living Earth course. 

Additional AP courses will increase the chances of students getting accepted into colleges. College admissions officers weigh AP courses highly on student transcripts. It proves that a student is capable of tackling challenging college curricula. AP courses are also weighted heavier than standard prep courses when calculating GPAs. The Milford Public School Program of Studies states that an A in an AP course is worth a 5.00 GPA, where as an A in a standard prep course is worth only a 4.25 GPA. Colleges are more likely to accept students with high GPA’s and AP’s help to facilitate this requirement. The average sophomore at Jonathan Law takes approximately 0-1 AP courses; only a handful of sophomores take more. If more AP courses were made available to sophomores, students would get more comfortable with the idea of taking college-level courses and as a result, will enroll in more AP courses in order to better their chances of getting into colleges that they apply for. For this reason, more AP courses should be added to sophomore course selections. 

AP courses are essential for paving career paths for students. At Jonathan Law, a high school career path is defined as, “a concentration in a particular field of study through a sequence of courses which lead to the development of a particular set of knowledge and skills aligned with career interests.” Not only are AP courses recommended to complete career paths, but they can direct students towards career paths that peak their interests. However, due to the limited AP courses provided to sophomores at Law, GPA driven students feel pressured to take an AP that they may not be interested in. AP courses in the subjects of social studies and foreign language are the only APs students can enroll in without taking any elective prerequisites. Not all students wish to go into those fields. More AP courses should be provided to sophomores, so that students can take AP’s that are related to their desired career paths. Moreover, if more AP courses are made available to sophomores, they can choose APs to see if they are interested in a subject and want to continue a career path within that subject. This is important to sophomores at Law because students will be more certain on their academic interests and course selections in years to come. 

Opponents of expanding AP selections for sophomores because they are afraid students will “bite off more than they can chew” in regards to taking more challenging classes as underclassmen. This argument makes sense because not all sophomores are ready for the responsibility required at the AP level. However, these APs are completely optional. If a student can not handle an AP course, they have the option to take an elective or study hall instead. Further, the discipline students are taught at the AP level can be beneficial for students because it will aid them later in their academic careers including the rest of high school.

High school is responsible for preparing and supporting students for success at higher levels of education. By providing sophomores with more AP selections, Jonathan Law is fulfilling this purpose. AP courses aid students in college acceptance and in finding their academic interests, which will only improve their college performance.