York County Schools to Revise Course Offerings

By Amber Lester Kennedy Thursday, December 09, 2010

York County students could soon be enrolling in new courses like video game design, musical stage productions and guitar.

Those courses are just a few of the recommended additions to the division’s Program of Studies. Chief Academic Officer Stephanie Guy presented the courses, rationale and costs to the York County School Board at a Monday work session. If every course change is approved, the new Program of Studies will cost about $50,000. The changes will come up for board approval at its Dec. 13 meeting.

Some courses will be removed, due to lack of interest from students; others will be added to meet demand and still more will be altered to better fit the hybrid 4X4 schedule that will be implemented in three high schools next year.

Several changes will bring the division in line with Virginia Department of Education mandates for fall 2011. Beginning with rising ninth-graders next fall, students will be required to take “Economics and Personal Finance” to earn a standard or Advanced Studies diploma. Starting with the same class, 26 credits will be required to earn an Advanced Studies Diploma. In addition, students in the class of 2015 may earn a Standard Technical Diploma if they’ve earned four credits of career and technical education or an Advanced Technical Diploma, which will require 26 credits, three in career and technical education.

To adjust to the hybrid 4X4 schedule, which will have students take four courses per semester, a full course load will be eight credit-bearing classes. At Grafton and Tabb High Schools, which will keep the current 7 A/B schedule, a full course load will be seven credit-bearing courses. In the block classes, students will not be able to drop courses after the fifth day the class meets; in non-block classes, changes can occur in the first two weeks of the semester.

Most of the new courses will be added at the high school level. Some of the proposed courses include “Graphic Novels as Literature,” “Virtual Game Design I and II” and “Medical Terminology.” The course on graphic novels would be the most expensive to implement; staff estimated the books and materials could cost $21,600, plus an additional $600 to write the curriculum. Guitar classes would be added as an alternative to band, which most students enter in middle school.

Several courses will be added to address students’ needs, including a math elective for students who failed the Grade 8 Math SOL; a Capstone Math class that students can take to prepare for college; and English as a World Language, an English course that will count as a foreign language credit for non-native speakers. In high school special education, three courses emphasizing work-related skills and transitions to work would be added.

At the middle school level, an Academic Seminar class would be added for the sixth grade. Currently, seventh- and eighth-graders have Academic Seminar classes that teach study skills and good work habits. Also, the administration proposes adding a course called “Readers’ Round Table” that would provide opportunities for students to share and discuss novels, non-fiction works, magazines, newspapers, blogs and more. One course will be revamped to better appeal to students; Intermediate Chorus will turn into the “Glee”-inspired “Musical Stage Productions” for seventh and eighth-graders.

Pending board approval, six courses will be deleted from the Program of Studies due to lack of interest. At the high school level, the economics course has not met in York County schools for more than two years, and next year’s freshman will be required to take economics. “International Relations” also has not met in two or more years.

In middle schools, “Exploratory Music” and “Intermediate Chorus” would be removed. “Exploratory Music” repeated content from elementary school; sixth-graders can instead take “Introduction to Chorus.” At New Horizons Career & Technical Center, courses in salon assistant and basic mechanic would be eliminated.

The School Board is scheduled to vote on the Program of Studies on Dec. 13. Changes occurring due to the implementation of the hybrid 4X4 schedule will be included in an addendum up for approval at a later meeting.