How to choose HS courses for 9th grader

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. Parent of middle schoolers. I appreciate all of this advice.

If the typical track at my kids’ high school (Whitman) is APUSH in grade 9, can we request NSL instead in grade 9 and APUSH in grade 10?

The track at Whitman for kids taking APUSH is AP Gov in 9 and APUSH in 10. There were a couple of 11th graders in DCs APUSH class but no 9th graders. I suppose you could take honors NSL in 9th and then APUSH but I think the view is that the kids on track to take APUSH are capable of taking AP NSL and if they have trouble with AP NSL it’s likely a sign that APUSH isn’t a good choice. In DCs year there were about 70-80 10th graders taking APUSH so by no means required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Parent of middle schoolers. I appreciate all of this advice.

If the typical track at my kids’ high school (Whitman) is APUSH in grade 9, can we request NSL instead in grade 9 and APUSH in grade 10?

The track at Whitman for kids taking APUSH is AP Gov in 9 and APUSH in 10. There were a couple of 11th graders in DCs APUSH class but no 9th graders. I suppose you could take honors NSL in 9th and then APUSH but I think the view is that the kids on track to take APUSH are capable of taking AP NSL and if they have trouble with AP NSL it’s likely a sign that APUSH isn’t a good choice. In DCs year there were about 70-80 10th graders taking APUSH so by no means required.

I think that they were just using NSL as shorthand for AP US Government. This is a much better track than the reverse.

[Anonymous]

My WJ student took AP Gov NSL in 9th and APUSH in 10th. Even having gone through AP Gov last year APUSH has been a big step up and quite a shock to his system. There's no way he would have done well in APUSH last year.

[Anonymous]

MyDC's HS doesnt offer any AP class in 9th grade. For social study, 9th grade Honor history only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MyDC's HS doesnt offer any AP class in 9th grade. For social study, 9th grade Honor history only.

Which school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MyDC's HS doesnt offer any AP class in 9th grade. For social study, 9th grade Honor history only.

Which school?

Mine too RM unless you are in the magnet..they take AP gov in 9th

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Parent of middle schoolers. I appreciate all of this advice.

If the typical track at my kids’ high school (Whitman) is APUSH in grade 9, can we request NSL instead in grade 9 and APUSH in grade 10?

The track at Whitman for kids taking APUSH is AP Gov in 9 and APUSH in 10. There were a couple of 11th graders in DCs APUSH class but no 9th graders. I suppose you could take honors NSL in 9th and then APUSH but I think the view is that the kids on track to take APUSH are capable of taking AP NSL and if they have trouble with AP NSL it’s likely a sign that APUSH isn’t a good choice. In DCs year there were about 70-80 10th graders taking APUSH so by no means required.

I think that they were just using NSL as shorthand for AP US Government. This is a much better track than the reverse.

Yea, sorry for any confusion. The AP test is called US Government. The MCPS class is AP NSL, since NSL is a required class. I used them interchangeably above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MyDC's HS doesnt offer any AP class in 9th grade. For social study, 9th grade Honor history only.

Which school?

Mine too RM unless you are in the magnet..they take AP gov in 9th

Are you sure? There were 351 taking this test at RM in 2016.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MyDC's HS doesnt offer any AP class in 9th grade. For social study, 9th grade Honor history only.

Which school?

Mine too RM unless you are in the magnet..they take AP gov in 9th

Are you sure? There were 351 taking this test at RM in 2016.

Not that poster but I heard the same thing from a friend going through registration

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9th grade parent here.

At our MS, each of the 8th grade teachers made a recommendation for what kids should take and parents made the final call. The challenge is that the teachers gave the recommendation directly to the kid so as a parent, it was a lot of Q&A to figure out what the situation was.

One important consideration-- the typical 'sequence' of courses varies somewhat across MCPS schools. For instance, at our school, high achieving science students take chem in year 1 and both bio and AP physics in year 2. The MS science teacher told as much to the kid-- I didn't really understand why but went along with it (and am glad that we did, because at the time I didn't know that kids could skip Honors bio and go straight to AP bio as a sophomore-- so this sequence opens up an option you wouldn't have if taking bio as freshman).

At our school, the really BIG question was Honors US History or AP US History. A LOT of kids who had signed up for AP and transferred back to Honors in the first 6 weeks because of the AP workload--so many wanted to transfer out that they had a very hard time finding Honors courses to put them into so kids were sort of racing to the counselor's office. (And a lot--I think about 25% of freshman class-- stayed in AP).

But different high schools have different sequences (many recommend AP US Govt in freshman year, which I understand to have a much lower time commitment). So while DCUM can help you sort through options once you know what they are, make sure you are hearing what the options are from the MS teachers/counselors.

AP teacher here: Pushing AP US History on 9th graders is not a good decision. A ton of reading and new types of writing. Can 9th graders pass? Sure, but they pass in much higher numbers and with higher scores in later grades. If you can push back on your school's recommended track, I recommend AP US Government (MCPS' NSL) or AP Human Geography as much better choices for 9th grade. (Not AP World). You can see the difference in scores by school...

To emphasize the point, here are the numbers illustrating what I said above:

Rockville HS chooses strong performers for APUSH in 9th grade (or did a couple of years ago; not sure if this continues). They have a good pass rate, but 47% of these kids end up with a 3 (passing, but unlikely to get college credit and not really impressive for admissions purposes). Overall average score is 3.3. At Whitman, which a PP said does APUSH in 10th grade, the overall average score is 4.3, and 54% get 5s. It could be due to a difference in teacher quality, but these scores are consistent with national score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MyDC's HS doesnt offer any AP class in 9th grade. For social study, 9th grade Honor history only.

Which school?

Mine too RM unless you are in the magnet..they take AP gov in 9th

Are you sure? There were 351 taking this test at RM in 2016.

The Magnet students take Magnet Government in 9th grade, along with the AP Government test, and then take Magnet US History in 10th, along with the AP US History test. The rest of the students take US History in 9th, and then have the option to take AP Government in 10th grade. So any given year, there are 9th grade magnet students and 10th grade AP students taking the test.

[Anonymous]

taking the AP Government test, that is....

[Anonymous]

What about AP Computer Science Principles? It is a TEC requirement and I heard that it was pretty easy as far as AP courses go.

[Anonymous]

For BCC, the AP US Gov (NSL) is offered for 9th graders, but they need to write an essay if they want to take the class (and also their current history teacher will be consulted re placement). At least, this is what we were told on Information Night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are HS courses chosen in 9th grade? Does the school determine most of them similar to MS, or is it mostly up to the student? Side info: FWIW we have a very high achieving 8th grader.

We all have high achieving kids