As the course selection sheet is released and the time comes for students to pick their schedules for the following year, juniors check off the slots for True Crime and Philosophy & Literature on their forms. The half-year elective classes for senior English, both Honors and CPA, are widely popular at West Essex. But, with this comes scheduling and curriculum issues. The school decided that it was time for a change, and going forward, seniors will no longer have half-year electives as an option, and must instead choose between taking English IV CPA, English IV Honors or AP English IV: Literature and Composition.
All of the current Half-year English classes – Literature and Psychology CPA, Literary Nonfiction: Memoirs of the Game CPA, Literary Nonfiction: True Crime CPA and Honors, Satire and Comedy in Literature CPA, Songwriters: Five Decades of Lyrical Legends CPA, Class and Literary Texts Honors, Philosophy and Literature Honors, Shakespeare Honors, Gender and Literary Texts Honors – will no longer be options for incoming seniors when selecting their schedules for next school year. Seniors will only be able to take full-year CPA, Honors and AP English classes in order to meet the curriculum requirement. But True Crime in Literature and Media Honors, one of the most popular English electives at this time, will remain available for both seniors and juniors for next year, although not meeting the curriculum requirement and only standing as a half-year elective class.
The changes are occurring due to scheduling and curriculum requirements, according to school administrators. Since some elective half-year courses were less popular than others, these classes were only running once, if at all, while classes such as True Crime and Philosophy and Literature were overfilled. This scheduling conflict made it difficult for students to get their top choices of class and has been a constant struggle for the guidance department when putting together schedules.
“This caused students to deal with a scheduling dilemma,” Director of Guidance Lisa Hulse said. “Their initial choices not being options which then increased the number of students in True Crime and Philosophy & Literature. Creating a schedule with these singletons, especially for English teachers who teach other singleton courses, adds to the complexity as well. The placement of those courses impacted the availability of classes that students’ could take.”
In addition to the scheduling dilemma, half-year courses allow for fewer absences than full-year classes to meet the graduation and senior service requirements. Without as many half-year courses, seniors would be less at risk of losing credit due to attendance.
With new curriculum changes at a state level, the full-year classes will better encompass these standards. The full-year classes will incorporate choice within the classes, with different units focusing on some of the topics discussed in the half-year courses.
“There are the curriculum factors,” English department Supervisor Stacy Casais said. “We want to make sure that everyone is getting an equitable education in terms of making sure all the standards are covered, especially now that they’re new, and making sure that students are prepared in a similar enough way.”
Still, many teachers and students are frustrated with this change, as it is completely reverting to the old curriculum. Current True Crime and Philosophy and Literature teacher Bryan McNaught acknowledges that this change in curriculum is still in the air.
“We’re not sure what next year’s classes are going to look like,” McNaught said. “The whole reason we came up with the electives is we wanted kids to be more engaged and we thought giving them a choice about which subjects would do that, but we’re not just going to revert to Beowulf and Chaucer and Shakespeare, which is what it used to be. It will be something new, we’re just not sure what it is going to be yet.”
While it is unsure what this change will exactly look like, it is evident that choice will be somehow included in the curriculum. The current elective classes are very popular with current seniors and have been in years in the past as well.
“I think they are really good classes,” senior Olivia Manos said, who is taking True Crime and Philosophy and Literature Honors. “I’ve learned more in these two classes than I have in most of my other classes this year because they are conversational rather than just busy work.”
Still, many juniors who were looking forward to taking the elective courses say they are disappointed in the change.
“I was really looking forward to taking the Shakespeare and Satire classes my senior year, but I won’t be able to since the half-year classes are removed,” junior Kaya Gerdes said. “I was hoping there would be another option to the class, but sadly there wasn’t.”
With this change in courses comes many unknowns—the material included in the English IV CPA and Honors classes, the curriculum for the True Crime elective class as compared to previous years, and the popularity of this change once set in motion.
“My goal is always to meet the standards and do right by the students,” Casais said. “In the perfect world, I would love it for all these options to run. But, realistically, we will be better able to serve more kids changing back to a full-year course.”
