<p>Are you against this move or fine with it? Should schools make their students chose between extreme ends? Because Honors courses were a nice middle boundry for students who want to be in advanced classes, but not necessarily TOO rigorous.</p>
<p>By cutting Honors classes, you’re forcing a whole segment of the student population to choose between AP/IB/DE classes that they are not prepared to handle, or classes that will not challenge them academically. In addition to this, Honors classes cover many subjects that do not have AP or IB classes affiliated with them.</p>
<p>some of the top schools in NY have done this; works great for college admissions…</p>
<p>Helping with college admissions does not always entail a successful educational system. There will always be those students NOT aiming for top universities, and they are the ones at risk of being failed by such a system.</p>
<p>rodney, out of curiosity, could you post the links and such about what schools have done this and how it has had a positive impact?</p>
<p>Our school actually cut ‘AP courses’ because it didn’t want to pay Collegeboard for the ‘title’ of ‘AP’. However, our Honors courses were considered AP level and most of us went on to take the AP tests and score many 5s or 4s.</p>
<p>I think it would depend on the school. If my school DID have a good middle ground as Honors, then extreme AP/IB/DE, I would hope the school keeps the Honors courses as an option for students. If Honors was at a level just like AP/IB/DE, but just a tiny bit less rigorous, I would think it’s a waste if people don’t just take the AP/IB/DE class. After all, the tests are optional; many people who take AP don’t end up taking the tests. I’m not too familiar with IB so I won’t be able to say for that.</p>
<p>Any class that is offered as AP/IB is not offered as honors (with the exception of Bio, but we can take Bio twice at my school).</p>
<p>My school dropped Honors for 11th and 12th grades English and Social Studies/History classes. I took AP World last year and came out with a C average, which is definitely not good. AND I ended up getting sick the day of the test which was even worse. So now I’ll be taking a regular US History course my Junior year which is not going to look nice on the transcript. Had my school not cut honors, I would’ve gotten into one of those courses.</p>
<p>It’s situations like that, Oracle82, that make me agree that Honors classes should be a middle ground between “on level” and AP/IB/DE.</p>
<p>My school has Honors for most classes. However, we don’t have AP Science (besides AP Bio), so Honors is the highest level.</p>
<p>Honestly, I would much rather have AP classes cut than honors classes. In my experience, you actually learn more in honors classes because there is more freedom rather than merely teaching to the test. </p>
<p>If people want to take AP they can either self-study, group study, or find a teacher that is willing to help prepare them one day a week or something after school.</p>
<p>We have honors for Freshman/Soph English, Geometry, Algebra, Biology, and Chem. </p>
<p>So mostly for freshmen and sophomores. Juniors/Seniors either take AP or regular.</p>
<p>My school is cutting honors english for eleventh and twelfth grade for this comming year. It should be interesting.</p>
<p>My school has no honors and few AP’s, so it would be nice if they established some honors courses.</p>
<p>Take our US history situation for example. A student can take the regular course which is pretty easy, maybe about 10 minutes of homework a night or less. Or the student takes the AP course, which is more rigorous, with 45 minutes- 3 hours of homework a night (it depends on what the projects/essays are). </p>
<p>So that is a big change, and as a result, only about 10% of our grade takes the AP course. A lot of students are too good for the regular but not daring enough to take the AP. It would be nice if they could have a middle of the road option that is set up like the AP course but with fewer difficult/time-consuming projects.</p>
<p>In my school, honors classes do nothing but separate the whites/asians from the blacks/spanish kids. I’m fine with it. The smart kids will still be in AP.</p>
<p>In my school, Honors and AP are same while like ApatheticLove said, it’s kinda like a division from smart to average. Not trying to offened anyone.</p>
<p>We don’t have many honors classes, in fact only one or two in each division for freshmen and sophomores only. The rest are all regular or AP. I personally don’t see the point of honors, take AP or regular, it’s that simple.</p>
<p>^agreed. For some classes (like freshman and sophomore level core classes), there may not be APs for those, so honors would be a good option. However, for classes where APs already exist, we don’t need a third level between the two. Keep in mind, adding that “middle honors” level would require more teachers, a new curriculum, more money, etc, which could be better utilized for more APs.</p>
<p>edit: Actually, there is one slight exception, for two-year sequences of courses (like physics), where you could have regular or honors physics first year, and AP second year.</p>