Plans are well underway for the new honors program to be implemented next school year. The main objective for restructuring the current program is to provide eligible students with the most challenging coursework available.

“Plans are moving along, but they are still formative,” assistant principal Gayle Owen said. “The student body will hear how we plan on making this come to be very soon.”

Few details surrounding the program are concrete, but a few are already decided. Unlike in previous years when only a teacher’s signature sufficed, additional criteria will now be required for assignment in honors classes including placement tests, prerequisite courses and grades earned in prior classes. Tentatively, placement tests for English and social studies will take place before the 2006 course selection guide is distributed. At present, the other core subjects are still exploring classes to offer and criteria for placement.

“We want to give all students opportunities [to excel] regardless of what their desires are,” Owen said.

The honors program will allow teachers to tailor their classes to provide an adequate challenge. Nearly 40 percent of pupils were enrolled in at least one honors class this year, an unrealistic representation of the number of students able to perform at the honors level. Pupils in honors classes should expect to perform to a higher standard next year and must maintain adequate grades to remain in the program.

“I am looking forward to the new honors program because the selection process will be more strict,” sophomore Chelsey Moore said. “It will weed out the people who should not be in honors.”

The revamped program will center on preparing students for life after high school whether they choose to go to college or straight into the work force. Students will be encouraged to focus on college preparation rather than worrying solely about having a having high grades.

“I am excited about the new honors program because it will raise the bar for performance,” history teacher Michelle Ryan said. “Some students need a greater challenge, and now they will get it.”

Since plans are still largely unknown, rumors regarding the honors program have circulated among students and many have proven false. There is no plan to discontinue weighting grades in honors, AP and dual enrollment classes next year. Also, once a student passes a placement test and is in an honors class, he or she is not required to retest the subsequent year.

Most of the current honors, AP and dual enrollment classes will be offered next year with the addition of honors anatomy & physiology. Honors classes to be offered next year at the ninth grade school are still undetermined.

“We want to prepare students to have options [now and later in life],” Owen said.

In the near future, students should receive a letter in TAP explaining the program and placement testing in further detail. Parents must sign a permission slip allowing their children to be screened for placement upper level classes.