2023-24 Course catalog
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Anonymous
| The PP link is for West Springfield. If you are searching for your HS course catalog(someone’s asked yesterday how to find it) Google Your High School Course Catalog. For people new to HS or FCPS it can be hard to locate |
Anonymous
you can click on any class that your interested in. When the pop up shows, you click on the tab above and it shows which schools in FCPS offer that same class. So, if you want to know which schools are still offering Trig/precalc Hons, you can see them all in the pop up tab. (using the link that the pp provided). |
Anonymous
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These two articles describe the genesis of AP Precalculus:
https://newsroom.collegeboard.org/new-ap-precalculus-course-will-expand-access-stem-majors-and-careers https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/a-new-ap-precalculus-course-aims-to-diversify-the-math-pipeline/2022/05 They describe how AP Precalculus was designed to open up opportunities for students taking Algebra 1 in 9th grade who might not otherwise have access to AP math. One advisory panel member warned districts about setting up barriers (i.e. prerequisites) to AP Precalculus which would defeat the purpose of the course's creation. This raises the question as to why districts may be thinking to implement AP Precalculus in such a different manner (i.e. as a proxy for honors PreCalc Trig with prerequisites) than what was envisioned by the course's creators. Down the road, will districts ultimately shift their approach back toward the original goal and open up AP Precalculus for all? |
Anonymous
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The MCPS forum is discussing AP Precalculus as well. A poster there linked to an excellent student editorial which details numerous reasons why AP Precalculus will not prepare students as well for both Calculus AB and BC as their school's Honors Precalc class.
https://saratogafalcon.org/content/precalculus-honors-classes-should-not-transform-curriculum-to-conform-to-ap-precalculus/ |
Anonymous
PP again. An excerpt from this editorial: "Even worse, the AP Precalculus curriculum focuses on skills that are not actually useful for the AP Calculus curriculum, which hinders its status as a pure prerequisite. For example, the current class plans to teach students how to use a graphing calculator to find critical points of functions and regression equations to model data. However, finding critical points is a skill typically learned in calculus. Without knowing derivatives, students cannot have a proper understanding of critical points or what makes a point a local and/or global extrema, promoting a superficial learning mindset. Furthermore, regression equations are a topic in AP Statistics, not AP Calculus. Many students take one but not the other, so AP Precalculus is sidetracked from its actual point. In our school’s math curriculum, such things are covered solely in AP Statistics so that those interested in the subject can learn it if they want to as a separate topic. A good deal of the curriculum in AP Precalculus, such as inverses of functions, polynomials, exponential, and logarithms are covered in Algebra II Honors, and so are quickly glossed over in the first couple units of Precalculus Honors. This helps provide more time to focus on more advanced topics at length, providing better preparation for subsequent calculus courses." |
Anonymous
| bumping |
Anonymous
According to the FCPS course catalog, TJHSST is not offering AP Precalculus next year. Presumably, they are staying with their existing TJ Math sequence. That makes sense. AP Precalculus is of no use to strong math and STEM students. https://insys.fcps.edu/CourseCatOnline/reportPanel/1041/10/0/0/0/1;title=reportPanelSideNav Unfortunately, math and STEM kids at other high schools will not be so lucky. |
Anonymous
Oh please, strong math and stem kids have tons of opportunities, no matter where they go. Just stop. |
Anonymous
They have many opportunities but they will lose honors Precalc Trig and be put into AP Precalculus which is a less rigorous course. Math is the backbone of STEM. Why do we want to water down their math preparation? We have a strong course now in honors Precalc Trig. There is no reason to change that. Introduce AP Precalculus for the kids it was designed for (regular Precalculus kids) and give them the opportunity to get an AP credit and all the benefits that the course creators envisioned. Both math and STEM kids and regular Precalculus kids are losing out by trying to introduce AP Precalculus as an honors course which it was never intended to be. |
Anonymous
PP again. Another puzzling thing about this policy decision is that it runs counter to FCPS's goal to move toward more equitable outcomes. If AP Precalculus was introduced for regular Precalculus kids, they'd get an AP credit and a +1 GPA boost which would enhance their transcript and provide them college credit. From an FCPS-wide perspective, this would make AP participation statistics less demographically skewed and would narrow the GPA achievement gap. Instead, FCPS is taking what some might consider to be the less equitable path; by imposing prerequisites for AP Precalculus, these kids are shut out even though course creators removed difficult Precalculus concepts and lowered minimum requirements (ie AP Precalculus assumes no prior exposure to logs) precisely so that they could succeed. That is another reason which makes this policy decision so hard to understand. |
Anonymous
| Let's wait for more info, which will likely come during curriculum night this week. Hold your fire... |
Anonymous
Seriously , it is just your HS school that is having a curriculum night. Are you referring to a rising 9 th grade curriculum night? Our HS had that last week and Nothing was mentioned about AP Pre Calc and teachers seemed to be clueless. I also have a rising Junior so I asked. There is no 10-12 curriculum night for our HS and teachers and counselors are still being tight lipped( probably because they have limited information). This is a HS that removed Pre Calc Trig HN. Now we are drafting an email to admin since kids are to choose courses this week. |
Anonymous
Other districts are adopting this policy as well. APS just announced it is adding AP Precalculus and eliminating honors Precalculus. MCPS may be heading in that direction too. Thus, it seems like districts may be coordinating the policy change. Did FCPS consult with HS math teachers to get their input before making the change? |
Anonymous
100% No. |
Anonymous
A McLean HS math teacher has posted two videos describing two ways that AP Precalculus will be implemented next year at McLean HS. Kudos to the above poster who said to wait for info at curriculum night; they are well informed about FCPS's plans and gave good guidance throughout this thread as to what to expect. At McLean, there appear to be at least two sections of AP Precalculus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd3p9gv01C8 Section one will be for calculus-bound kids (AB and BC). This class will cover the three sections of the AP exam plus additional topics including parametric equations, vectors, limits, and introduction to derivatives. I am the PP who was concerned that kids would not be prepared for BC coming out of AP Precalculus. The modifications that McLean is making allay my concerns there as McLean is essentially recreating honors Precalc Trig. McLean is also advising calculus-bound students not to take the AP Precalculus exam as 1) FCPS only gives kids six free AP exams, 2) colleges typically do not give credit for both Precalculus and Calculus, and 3) many colleges do not give credit for Precalculus. Even if kids forgo the AP Precalculus exam, they will still receive a +1 GPA boost. FCPS is effectively recreating the wheel here -- they are putting calculus-bound kids into AP Precalculus but are telling them not to take the exam and are giving them the additional content found in honors Precalc Trig. Why go to all this trouble -- why not just leave them alone in honors Precalc Trig? Is this all just to give them a +1 GPA boost that comes from an AP course? Is the goal to put more kids into AP Precalculus to make it appear more heterogenous? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icekNxClzhE Section two will cover the three AP Precalculus units included in the exam plus the optional fourth unit and will also generate a +1 GPA boost. No mention is made of which students are expected to take this course. However, in reviewing skills needed to take AP Precalculus, the math teacher said that students will have covered some AP Precalculus topics in their Algebra 2 or honors course. This is interesting. If I am interpreting this correctly, it suggests that kids taking non-honors Algebra 2 and honors Algebra 2 would be eligible to take Section 2 of AP Precalculus. Can anyone clarify if this is the case? If so, while this might allow some students to get an AP credit who would otherwise not, it would not generate as big of an equity boost as course creators would have hoped. Why? The optional fourth unit is more difficult and less useful for students who do not intend to go on in math. Inclusion of the fourth unit may discourage some non-honors math kids from taking AP Precalculus Section 2. A better formulation for Section 2, from an equity perspective, would have been to have this section cover only the three topics included on the AP Precalculus exam in order to maximize student enrollment. Might there be a third AP section that does the latter? Hard to know but there was no video posted that described any third such AP option. The FCPS course catalog stills lists non-honors PreCalc Trig as being offered at McLean. https://insys.fcps.edu/CourseCatOnline/reportPanel/1041/10/0/0/0/1;title=reportPanelSideNav so it would appear that there would be at least three tiers of Precalculus at McLean -- non honors PreCal Trig, AP Precalculus, and AP Precalculus for calculus bound kids. A key question is whether McLean's model will be replicated at every FCPS high school or whether AP Precalculus implementation will vary between high schools. This is a crucial point that FCPS should clarify. |