Before the first semester ended, I had around four people transfer out of my AP Seminar class. While they likely had their own reasons, frustration with the course was evident from the very beginning: many sophomores hadn’t intended to sign up for this at all.

Principal Shawn DeRose announced over the summer in an email on July 7 that AHS would be “offering AP Seminar in lieu of English 10 Honors.”

Those who had requested English 10 Honors on their course selection forms were met with the “most rigorous and enriching programming…,” DeRose wrote in reference to AP Seminar.

In practice, the implementation of AP Seminar widened the gap in academic rigor between it and its adjacent English course offering, English 10. This divide reflects a broader pattern at AHS, where students are at a crossroads between IB courses and general education classes which English teacher Karen Chu highlights.

While AP and IB courses are more rigorous and academically demanding than general education courses, some students would benefit more from slightly challenging classes that fall in the middle.

“I wish there was an English 10 Honors option,” freshman Isobel Davis said. “Some people need the in-between because it feels like English 10 is too easy and AP Seminar is too hard.”

To better meet the diverse range of students’ academic needs, AHS needs to expand course offerings to include this middle ground through more honors courses.