Mandarin Chinese, AP Research among the new courses to be offered in Cherry Hill high schools next year
The Cherry Hill Board of Education reviewed the new classes for the Cherry Hill 2018–19 high school course selection back at a meeting last Tuesday.
Cherry Hill Public Schools is making a few additions to the high school course book for the 2018–19 school year.
Assistant Superintendent for K-12 Joseph Campisi presented the new courses during the Cherry Hill Board of Education’s committee of the whole meeting last Tuesday. The new courses included the addition of Chinese as a foreign language, an Advanced Placement research class and a class named AP Computer Science Principles.
There was a large community push to get Mandarin Chinese added to the high school curriculum for 2018–19. The school district will be piloting the program next year, offering an accelerated Chinese I course and an honors Chinese I course. At the board’s curriculum and instruction committee meeting in November, district administrators said there are also plans to extend the pilot to Mandarin Chinese II in the 2019–20 school year. The district is looking for a certified Mandarin Chinese teacher to instruct the classes.
At last Tuesday’s meeting, board member Lisa Saidel asked how it would be determined if students should be in accelerated Chinese I or honors Chinese I.
“We have to look at a lot of different diagnostic assessments,” Campisi said. “As students sign up for the course, there would have to be a screening or a pre-assessment to determine.”
For 2018–19, the district plans to have two sections of Chinese I at Cherry Hill High School East and two sections at Cherry Hill High School West.
Campisi and Superintendent Joe Meloche also discussed the addition of AP Research to the high school’s course book. AP Research will be added following the addition of AP Seminar, which is being offered at the high schools for the first time this school year. According to the school district’s high school course book for 2017–18, AP Seminar is, “a foundational course that engages students in cross-curricular conversations that explore the complexities of academic and real-world topics and issues by analyzing divergent perspectives.”
Students who complete AP Seminar this year will be able to move onto AP Research next year. According to College Board, AP Research is a class where the students will able to explore an academic topic of their interest and conduct year-long research to answer an important question on their subject.
“It’s about the process more so than the content,” Meloche said as he explained the course. “(The students) may work with individual teachers on the content that is there, but there doesn’t have to be a certain content area certification to teach the class.”
“Children will be able to identify exactly what it is they would want to work toward or work on,” Meloche added.
The AP Seminar and AP Research classes are part of the AP Capstone Diploma program that recognizes students who earn scores of three or higher in the AP seminar and research classes as well as at least four other AP courses.
“If they take both of these classes and a certain amount of AP classes in high school, they can receive an AP-endorsed diploma upon graduation,” Meloche said.
In addition to the four new courses, the district is also offering students the opportunity to earn dual credits to go toward college. The district is adding partnerships with Rowan College at Burlington County and Stockton University for next school year.
