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Students should be offered more course alternatives

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At the beginning of every school year, schedule changes are common occurrences. Students may try to switch out of classes they do not like, or try to get into classes that were previously full. This year, some students were unable to get an AP Physics 2 course and had to fill their schedules with whatever courses were left over. In this type of situation, the school administration should have done more to offer students academic course equivalents or opportunities.

The course choices that seniors were given, after the school had announced that an AP Physics 2 course would not be offered, were fairly limited. Most seniors had to choose between taking a Teacher Aide Tutor (TA-Tutor) course or getting early release fourth period. Seniors who had a gap in between their fourth and sixth periods had to pick up a TA-Tutor period. In essence, some students did not even have a choice.

Students were not even offered any academic alternatives, such as AP Computer Science A or AP Physics C, which are as rigorous as AP Physics 2. This may reflect poorly on college applications, especially since AP Physics is a two year course. Students were told to commit to AP Physics 1 and 2 when they first signed up, but at the end of the day, it isn’t the level of student’s commitment that is at fault here. Students desire to study physics and to maintain their rigorous schedules, but they have not been given the options to.

School administrators should have done more to be able to offer students course alternatives, or ways to study physics. Hiring a substitute teacher for the beginning of the year could allow students to self-study AP Physics 2, while administrators interview potential teachers. Administrators could have looked into after school classes, or helped create study groups to aid students. Simply not offering students any of these opportunities, and leaving them to deal with the situation themselves is unacceptable.

When there is a course adjustment, last minute or not, the students should not be the ones to suffer. School administrators should do everything in their power to ensure that they can offer the courses that students wish to study. Rather than neglect them, administrators should support students in their educational pursuits.

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