Many freshman at WJ take AP Gov.

She should be doing AP gov't. In other parts of the country it's a 1 semester class for seniors, so perfect over a year for 9th graders.

My DD took it and got a 4 on the exam when she was 14.

We have no idea how smart or diligent or good as absorbing facts your daughter is.

It appears that different high schools have different options. At ours, kids can choose AP NSL or honors US History. It seems like most, but by no means all, of the kids who have followed the advanced math and enriched social studies track at our high school have opted for AP NSL over the past few years. However, most kids in Honors history are still headed to college and opting for that class won't impact your college chances. As the previous poster pointed out, at our school, if you take AP NSL in 9th grade, you are committing to APUSH in 10th. Most kids don't seem to find AP NSL particularly challenging, but many do find APUSH hard (LOTS of reading), so you need to consider what your kid will take in 10th grade and how APUSH would fit in with that.

I've got two kids -- my older one opted to do Honors US History in 9th and then AP NSL in 10th and that kid is now at a Top 20 college. My younger kid, who's more into social studies, opted to do AP NSL in 9th and APUSH in 10th and did fine in both, although definitely found APUSH to be a lot more work.

If the issue is a social one, I'd suggest posting on your high school's list serve, since you will get more relevant info about practices at your school there.

My DH teaches AP US History for 9th graders.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. My kid's schedule says honors US History. So am I to assume that his school does 9th grade AP US or Honors US? And that Gov is next year?

Not necessarily. The options for 9th grade could be Honors US or AP Gov.

Huh? So then the option for 10th grade is APUSH and Honors Gov? Is that a class. That doesn't make sense

At our school, 9th graders take Honors US or AP Gov. Those who took Honors US take either Honors Gov[NSL] or AP Gov in 10th, and those who took AP Gov take Honors US or APUSH.

Ok, thank you. I have a feeling that is how our school works too. So the reason to take AP Gov in 9th is mainly to have the option to take APUSH in 10th grade. You don't really have the option otherwise. So unless your 10th grade schedule will be drastically harder and you just want to get the AP out of the way freshman year.

But my daughter doesn't need both, has a lot of extra curricular, and I think would be stressed this year taking AP Gov. I just don't see the need.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. My kid's schedule says honors US History. So am I to assume that his school does 9th grade AP US or Honors US? And that Gov is next year?

Not necessarily. The options for 9th grade could be Honors US or AP Gov.

Huh? So then the option for 10th grade is APUSH and Honors Gov? Is that a class. That doesn't make sense

At our school, 9th graders take Honors US or AP Gov. Those who took Honors US take either Honors Gov[NSL] or AP Gov in 10th, and those who took AP Gov take Honors US or APUSH.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think she needs it, in that I don’t think it will impact college admission. She is probably right that most of the studious kids will take AP Gov, which means the classroom environment in the non-AP section is more likely to be disruptive.

FWIW, AP Gov is not particularly challenging. I think the trouble comes in next year. APUSH is incredibly challenging and a lot of work. Some of this depends on the sequencing of history classes at your school. At some schools, all the 9th graders take Gov and the 10th graders take US History, so it’s easy to take AP Gov in 9th and drop down to Honors US in 10th. But in some schools, the sequence is either Honors US in 9th and Gov in 10th or AP Gov in 9th and APUSH in 10th. In that case, if your kid takes AP Gov in 9th and then doesn’t want APUSH in 10th, they’ll end up as a 10th grader in a class mostly full of 9th graders. So that can be rough.

My daughter has Honors US History but a few of her friends have AP Gov. I don't think any have AP US History. So I have no idea what next year even means then. I really wish MCPS had a more thorough way of explaining tracks in high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. My kid's schedule says honors US History. So am I to assume that his school does 9th grade AP US or Honors US? And that Gov is next year?

Not necessarily. The options for 9th grade could be Honors US or AP Gov.

Huh? So then the option for 10th grade is APUSH and Honors Gov? Is that a class. That doesn't make sense

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. My kid's schedule says honors US History. So am I to assume that his school does 9th grade AP US or Honors US? And that Gov is next year?

Not necessarily. The options for 9th grade could be Honors US or AP Gov.

Just curious. My kid's schedule says honors US History. So am I to assume that his school does 9th grade AP US or Honors US? And that Gov is next year?

At Whitman very few freshman are taking AP history. DC was in the HIGH track or whatever it's called for 8th and the kids were all talking about how basically no one was recommended for the AP history class so they did not sign up for it.

I don’t think she needs it, in that I don’t think it will impact college admission. She is probably right that most of the studious kids will take AP Gov, which means the classroom environment in the non-AP section is more likely to be disruptive.

FWIW, AP Gov is not particularly challenging. I think the trouble comes in next year. APUSH is incredibly challenging and a lot of work. Some of this depends on the sequencing of history classes at your school. At some schools, all the 9th graders take Gov and the 10th graders take US History, so it’s easy to take AP Gov in 9th and drop down to Honors US in 10th. But in some schools, the sequence is either Honors US in 9th and Gov in 10th or AP Gov in 9th and APUSH in 10th. In that case, if your kid takes AP Gov in 9th and then doesn’t want APUSH in 10th, they’ll end up as a 10th grader in a class mostly full of 9th graders. So that can be rough.

Holy shit this madness needs to stop. These are FRESHMEN.

My daughter is in honors everything including Alg 2. She is also taking AP computer science. She came home after orientation stating she feels that honors history is for the non-college kids and she should be in an AP class. I have heard from countless teens and parents that AP Gov is a nightmare class for freshman and my daughter has zero desire to learn anything about US Gov. She also plays a travel sport that consumes a lot of time. I really don't think she needs the AP, but she is telling me she will be behind her peers if she doesn't do it. I am not buying it.