Curriculum and Instruction : Gifted Program : High School Services
	Advanced Placement Classes Honors Classes

Elementary and middle school students with high academic ability are tested for participation in the district's gifted program. The gifted program is designed to provide depth and breadth to grade level competencies. The program also emphasizes the development of critical and creative thinking and reasoning skills.

High school students may participate in the advanced placement (AP) classes and/or honors classes. Placement is determined according to district departmental criteria. Those students who seek enrollment in AP classes and/or honors classes will be screened for placement. Criteria for placement will be available during the registration process but generally require that students have high standardized test scores, read and write at or above grade level and for certain classes, have taken prerequisites.

Advanced Placement Classes

Advanced Placement classes afford students the opportunity to complete college-level courses in high school. Participating colleges grant credit and appropriate placement based on the scores that students achieve on the AP examinations. Students who complete an Advanced Placement course are expected to take the appropriate Advanced Placement examination at their own expense. Those who qualify as low income may receive a waiver for the exam fees.

The following are just some of the AP classes offered at most high schools:

• Fine Arts-Visual Arts IV
• Math-Calculus (AB), Calculus (BC)
• Science-Biology II, Chemistry II
• Business/Computer-Computer Science
• English- English IV
• Social Studies-World History, Human Geography, American/Arizona history, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, American and Arizona Government, Psychology
• Foreign Language-Spanish, French
  

1. Provide a foundation for success in IB and/or AP classes and consistently align with IB and/or AP content.
2. Consistently align with college coursework.
3. Cover more breadth and depth in each subject area, thus requiring additional effort and perseverance on the part of the student. Summer reading or other outside activity is an expectation.
4. Consistently require thinking at the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation).
5. Require students to demonstrate higher levels of reading comprehension, analytical writing, oral communication, and test-taking skills across disciplines.
6. Require prior mastery of all prerequisite skills.