This year at Grand Ledge High School, two new advanced placement (AP) classes are being offered. AP courses are challenging college level classes offered to high school students to earn college credit. The new classes are AP European History taught by Mrs. Read and AP Precalculus taught by Ms. Westen. They are available to GLHS students as of the 2024-2025 school year. Grand Ledge offers 16 AP level classes; AP Statistics, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Precalculus, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, AP U.S. History, AP World History, AP European History, AP African American Studies, AP English Literature, AP English Language, AP Psychology, AP Macroeconomics and AP Microeconomics. Students who take these courses obtain a weighted GPA which allows for the scale to go higher, all the way up to a 5.0. Ms. Westen has been a teacher in Grand Ledge for many years. This year she undertook the responsibility of turning the school’s normal Precalculus class into an AP Precalculus class that met all the criteria from the college board so her students could succeed on the exam. Ms. Westen compares normal Precalculus and AP by saying that about 70% of the class curriculum was able to remain the same while the “the rigor of AP Precalculus is the same as the rigor was for Precalculus it’s just different content at times because I have to match what the college boards tells me is AP content” The title of AP in the past has scared off prospective students because of its notorious reputation for being challenging; however in this case more students are enrolled in AP Precalculus than there were enrolled in Precalculus last year which shows the appeal of AP credits to colleges and high achieving students. Mrs. Read has taught AP World History for the past three school years and this year added on AP European History. She encourages students to take an AP history class by saying “They are super fun, we get to do a lot of really cool things, we get to learn a lot of really cool stories, we get to do bigger and better projects and have a more authentic experience with history… You get skills that can transfer pretty much anywhere” The College Board offers many opportunities for teachers to learn more about the classes they are teaching. These include online and in person summer institutes where they can learn from other teachers on the best strategies for teaching. Mrs. Read speaks on these opportunities as a great way to learn from other teachers from different backgrounds and get a start on creating curriculum for new AP classes. “I was training with people from Africa, Europe, both coasts of the U.S. I think we had someone from South America as well… The plan is to walk away with at least two full units prepped and done.” Both teachers agreed that there are no downsides on their end to teaching an AP class; however, students must consider the rigor of the class and its importance to their future before signing up to take these challenging courses.
