Midwood High School's Advanced Placement Program

Abstract

THE Midwood High School program differs in one basic respect from most programs in other schools. At Midwood an effort is made to identify exceptionally bright pupils at the time they enter the program from our ninth-year class and from the feeding junior high schools. The program starts in the tenth year, and is a vertical one, in depth, planned for three years. It is not merely a horizontal program limited to the senior year only. Even before students enter the Midwood High School, our personnel in charge of articulation takes steps to evaluate the records in the feeding schools, visit these schools, and interview pupils, parents, and teachers. There is, therefore, an early beginning in the process of identification or selection.The exceptionally bright pupils are divided into two groups-those whose major potential capacity and interest fall within the area of mathematics and science, and those whose major potential capacity and interest fall within the area of language-arts, or so-called &dquo;humanities.&dquo;In the tenth year, pupils in the mathematics-science group are challenged in an enriched course in geometry, instruction in science which emphasizes much more original and laboratory work in the fields of both high-school biology and high-school chemistry, one foreign language, and a double-period core class in enriched English and social studies.In the eleventh year, these pupils are ready to take high-school physics as well as a continuation of enriched mathematics through trigonometry and advanced algebra. In the twelfth year, these pupils are ready for two or more of the following courses (in addition to the usual English, social studies, and foreign language): college mathematics, analytics and calculus; college biology; college chemistry; and college physics.In the tenth year, the language-arts group is challenged by specially enriched and accelerated work in two foreign languages; an enriched core arrangement in English and social studies, emphasizing wide reading, creative writing, and research; and the usual biology and geometry. As these pupils progress through the eleventh and twelfth years, they continue in &dquo;blocked&dquo; classes in the subjects of their special interest, involving themselves in journalism, dramatics, English classics, creative writing, and &dquo;honors&dquo; work in social studies. In their senior year, they are, there-

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