<p>This is a new one for me; seems that every kid on CC only takes AP (I get that) or "Honors" courses.</p>
<p>DD's school doesn't have Honors course (and only has 4 non-math AP courses), and I'm wondering if, in practice, they are really just another way to say "college prep."</p>
<p>Is this just course inflation to add atop grade inflation?</p>
<p>Also, a question: would a school really have, say 3 World History courses for 10th graders ("regular," Honors and AP)?</p>
<p>Is there some standardized Honors curriculum?</p>
<p>I can only speak for my school site/ state but in brief the answers are:</p>
<p>no, an honors course is a more rigorous class than a standard college prep course.</p>
<p>yes, some, usually large, schools have all three levels or even a fourth designation of non-college prep or basic for students on the lower end of the spectrum. </p>
<p>kind of: In CA in order for a class to have the honors designation paperwork has to be submitted to the state and the course syllabus must be approved. There is, I am sure, a great deal of variance but the amount of rigor in a course that is designated as "Honors" is supposed to exceed that of a standard college prep class.</p>
<p>That said, the colleges to which your student applies are aware of the course offerings at your school. Our hs only offers 5 AP courses and 1 Honors course. A student who does well in the most rigorous curriculum here is usually not compared side by side in terms of rigor with a student who has say 10 APs available to them. I hope that makes sense!</p>
<p>Our school has a slow level (forget what it's called), Regents (or college prep), honors and AP. Not every course is offered at every level. For example there is no honors Latin until the fourth year, when there is only honors Latin. But in Spanish there is an honors course in the 3rd year. Strictly speaking this means if you'd been savvy in middle school and picked Spanish you'd have an edge in the ranking since our rankings are weighted. While our school profile describes the levels of courses available there is no way for admissions offers to know the picayune differences between the different subjects. But a good GC will explain how the rigor of your child's choices compare with what was available. There have also been times when both my kids were unable to take honors courses for which they were qualified because of scheduling conflicts.</p>
<p>There are about 2200 kids in my D's high school. We're in a massive school district, and in one of the top performing schools, although as an overall urban district, the test performances are dismal. Yes, there are AP, honors, and "regular" versions of almost all of the core classes. There are weighted GPA's, so unfortunately, both of my Ds' shared classes with kids who took the AP course because a D in the AP course = same weighted GPA as a B in a "regular" class.</p>
<p>Wow 2200...sounds so big! But the plus is more variety. My D's school has 400.</p>
<p>Where we live, there isn't 'honours' and AP courses are very limited. For math, english and languages, there are regular classes, enriched and accelerated (and in some cases AP). Though we have learned from seeing kids moving from this private school to the nearby local public (but very good) highschool that they typically jump a grade (e.g. enriched English 9 is enriched English 10 at the public). </p>
<p>No idea how much these courses compare across schools even in the same district, let alone different districts, regions or states.</p>
<p>absentmindedly I killed my reply before entering it..</p>
<p>Agree with what's been said about this being a factor of school size. My kids' small private school (where there was an application/testing etc so they had some level of performance to be admitted) offers a dozen APs and maybe half that number honors. They are experimenting with an honors option in a couple science classes where the kids can do extra work/labs to get the honors designation. The scheduling issues are the biggest factor in not being able to offer more honors classes, the head of the foreign lang dept told me this when I mentioned it regarding lower level classes with a big range in abilities.</p>
<p>My kids try to take all honors courses in high school because there are a lot of kids who just don't care in the regular level. D took 3 AP classes junior year and 5 senior year because she likes a challenging course load. It also seems the best teachers are assigned the honors and AP classes, and the kids are more motivated to study, participate, and behave in class. This school has about 1400 kids in 4 grades.</p>
<p>My school has a regents level (we're in New York and it's the equivalent of a regular course), an honors level, and an AP level for virtually every course offered. And if there isn't an AP level, it's offered through SUPA (which is through Syracuse University). </p>
<p>Honors are much more rigorous than regents/regular levels. While they cover the same material, honors is much more fast paced and goes above and beyond what they cover in regular courses. However, APs are the same to honors as honors are to regular courses. Even more fast paced and rigorous and WAY above and beyond.</p>
<p>Grade inflation makes it tough for everyone. Wouldn't it be better if kids could just take the class that they thought was best for them? Now they have to worry that it isn't competitive enough.</p>
<p>AP World History in 10th grade. Give me a break!</p>
<p>Our HS of 1400 has core, academic, honors and AP level courses (in ascending degree of challenge). All english, history, science and math class levels that are required for graduation are offered in, at least, the 3 lower levels (not AP); in the upper grades some subjects are only offered in the academic, honors and AP levels. Our school offers 14 APs, available to juniors and seniors; juniors typically only are eligible for APUSH and AP Eng Lang, sometimes AP Chem. Like a poster above, some classes like French IV are only offered at the honors level; French V is AP only.</p>
<p>I guess honors classes might be considered "college prep", but about 85% of our graduating class typically goes on to college and they're not all taking all honors and AP classes.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"Honors" sounds more politically correct.
[/quote]
In our district, "honors" is politically incorrect; there's now modified (previously "remedial"), standard, accelerated, and AP. There are about 1200 students in the school. The classes really are different in speed and depth. APs generally are not offered until 11th grade, and then there are only a few. Most APs are taken as seniors.</p>
<p>My d took mostly honors for the same reason as mamabear's kids: those in standard just didn't care. She did take standard math, because honors moved too fast for her; she was bored to tears.</p>
<p>In the core subjects, our school has three levels: basic, regular and honors. The honors are the college-prep level. I can see why the school report is so important to admissions officers as they figure out how a student did in the context of their high school.</p>
<p>Whoa. My high school had no APs and for the most part just a few accelerated courses. It is a fine school but didn't participate in the naming gaming. Maybe quality is all about the name of the course?</p>
<p>Our high sch. (2700 kids) has regular,honors,AP. Most of the college bound kids take honors/AP classes with a smattering of regulars (usually electives) thrown in. Honors classes are harder than regular classes. Our school offers close to 20 AP classes. Yes, our sch does offer three World History classes (reg. honors, AP)</p>
<p>Harder. Harder as in different books and greater depth of subject or just more homework? Not being flip but really curious as to how one quantifies "harder".</p>
<p>Usually, all of the above. "Harder" to me means more interest from the students and more interest from the teacher, therefore more material can be covered and to a deeper level. The advantage of a really big school (ours is 3800 and some have over 5000) is that they are able to offer a lot more courses and levels of courses (there are enough students to fill them). In our school around 500 students are in an IB Magnet so they choose to come to this school (they need to qualify and then be picked by lottery). I've always liked big because usually big means more choices (even in social groups). A teacher once told me it was easier to handle 50 good students than 15 uninterested ones.</p>
<p>I took honors calc in high school in the 1970s and the difference between that and other calc classes was the level of theory in the course. Loads of proofs which wouldn't be in other courses. And the honors course might not have been the best calc version to take for some majors given the different focus.</p>
<p>One of the main reasons that students partake in the opportunity for AP level classes is to potentially eliminate the entry level gen ed requirements in college. You do not HAVE to take an AP course to pass an AP test. There are students who self study outside of school and take and pass AP tests. In the case of a math or sciences major, the student would go in (assuming that the AP tests had been passed with a 4 or 5)and immediately register for the upper level math and science courses. Many students enter college with as many as 30 credits which can be considered almost Sophomore status. The colleges do not look as much at the weighted GPA as they do the regular GPA, the difficulty of the classes taken and the overall transcript. With the price of a college education these days, going in with AP credits can save a lot of tuition money. There are ways to accomplish this even if your high school does not offer the classes.</p>
<p>For instance... S2 took reg. Chem. as a soph. His teacher also taught an honors Chem. section. When they had tests, they were given the same test up to a point but then there were extra, more difficult questions/problems that were for the honors section only.<br>
S2 also felt that the teacher gave the reg. class more help/explanation on homework assignments than he did for the honors class (S2 had a good friend in honors to compare with).</p>