On December 7, the math department will be proposing the addition of the AP Pre-calculus class for the 2024-25 school year. The class has already been approved by the school district and might find its way into Ballard next year.
“The reason it hasn’t happened before is because it literally is not an option,” said (first name) Logsdon, Math Department Head. The 2023-24 school year is the very first year. The math team was aware that it was coming up but made a strategic decision not to jump in on the very first pilot year because we wanted to let the program run.”
AP Pre-Calculus is a class run by the AP college board that prepares you for college level math and science courses.
“The way we are planning on running AP Pre-Calculus is that [it] was the straight replacement for honors pre-calculus,” Logsdon said. “We have two pre-calculus classes now, regular and honors, we would still have two pre-calculus offerings but . . . it would be regular and AP.”
So if a student was thinking about taking pre-calculus honors next year, there may be a new class that they would be interested in taking.
“I don’t think it will have a major change on the size of our program,” Logsdon said. “If anything maybe more people would sign up because they get that extra AP credit.”
AP Pre-Calculus can give you college credit for a pre-calculus course or an Algebra trigonometry credit, though AP credits aren’t always accepted by colleges.
“It is really similar to what we already teach. . . I think we already have a very strong Pre-Calculus program,” Logsdon said. “So 98% of that is stuff we’re already teaching. The one thing that will be an addition is working with polar functions.”
One benefit of AP classes is that they can help you be already familiar with what college classes will be like and how difficult it will be before actually going to college.
“They are standardized curriculums,” Logsdon said. “Colleges understand what the curriculum is.”
Another thing that taking an AP class makes possible is that it can give you the flexibility to change majors in college.
“The AP prep itself will be the change,” Logsdon said. “Getting set up in April and May and actually pausing and doing some AP prep will be something that we’ll do different.”
An AP class is a class that helps get you ahead in school by preparing you for college in high school. AP classes can also give you credits at most colleges.
“It’ll be a positive offering for new students,” Logsdon said. “AP classes have been proven successful for many students.”
This isn’t true for everybody. For some people the extra workload and challenge of an AP class is too much to handle
“The new course proposal process has to be followed for any new course,” Logsdon said. “A teacher would present at the December instructional council meeting… every school year.”
Following the presentation the instruction council votes on if the new class that is being proposed will be added or not.
“If a student wants a new course they would have to find a teacher that would be willing to pitch the idea and probably willing to teach it,” Logsdon said. “They could make the case for why it would be beneficial to Ballard students and would fit within the greater community.”
A class has been voted into Ballard multiple times before, one example being when AP Environmental Sciences was voted into the science department a few years ago and has been a course ever since. The class does already have to be in the district catalog to be voted into Ballard High School.
