Curriculum Expansion: AP Psych and Business Added to CCHS Course Catalog
Art by Una Finn.
Starting next year, pending school board approval, AP Psychology and AP Business will be introduced to CCHS.
AP Business is a Career Technical Education Pathway (CTE) called AP Career Kickstart Business with Personal Finance, meaning after taking the class for two years, students will be able to receive a business certificate that can help them jump right into a career. AP Business will focus on giving students a “business background and mindset, by being taught the world of business,” says Ms. Hamad, the Assistant Principal of Curriculum. To do this, the curriculum will be project heavy, with students making their own business, marketing, and financial plans in semester one and controlling household income in semester two.
The AP Psychology class is longer and will go more in-depth than the already existing semester-long Psychology course taught by Mr. Milke, and will “let students get another taste of psychology,” says Ms. Hamad. To do this, the curriculum is split up into five units that cover everything from the biological base of human behavior to cognition and mental and physical health. This class will teach students about why and how humans act and behave the way that we do through topics such as social psychology and personality. AP Psych is designed to be the same class one would take as an Intro to Psychology in college, and can also be used to “test towards a site degree” in psychology, says Mr. Mende, a possible teacher for the course. Students will use different tactics like research methods and data evaluation when applying their knowledge of psychological concepts and theories.
Dr. Tano, the school’s financial math teacher, will be teaching AP Business to 11th and 12th graders next school year, and while the school doesn’t yet have an official AP Psych teacher, many teachers have lined up, willing to get an extra credential to teach this new class. Whichever teacher is chosen for AP Psychology will take a week long AP Summer Institute training through the College Board along with Dr. Tano.
Normally when new classes are introduced to CCHS, a teacher or counselor would create and write the course, then propose the idea to Ms. Hamad. However, according to Ms. Hamad, AP Psych was the “most requested course [counselors] would hear from students,” which led to a proposal for this specific class by counselors in order to meet student demand. In past years, two of the most common majors for CCHS students heading to college have been Business and Psychology, which makes these classes attractive for those who want to get a head start. Business has also drawn in the most students of all the courses offered in dual enrollment with West LA College, with 98 students signed up this past year, so when the College Board requested that CCHS be a school that pilots the AP Business class, we happily accepted.
However, although the school has seen lots of student interest, there are still many challenges that come with introducing new AP classes. They have to make sure there will be enough enrollment for the class to be worthwhile, while still keeping enough students in the already existing classes. Enrollment interest is not a concern for these two new classes, but we must ensure that they don’t take away students from classes that students need to graduate. CCHS must prioritize A-G requirements, and until they are covered, “all the other stuff becomes fluff that’s put in where it fits,” even if that means only one AP Psych and Business class period for next semester, says Ms. Hamad. On top of all of these concerns, AP Business and AP Psych may have to be cut from the course catalog next year with the new budget cuts introduced to CCUSD, though nothing is certain yet.