Is this the beginning of the end of honors and advanced placement in Plano ISD?
As reported in the past, Superintendent Williams and Board President Humphrey intentionally conceal pertinent information about Board agenda items from stakeholders. This is another example of such concealment.
At the October 17, 2023 Board Work Session, the Board was presented with recommendations from Superintendent Williams and her team on courses for the 2023-2024 school year. The Trustees also received a handout ahead of this meeting regarding courses to be ended and added. That information was withheld from the public until the moment it was being presented during the meeting. The Board unanimously voted to adopt all these course changes.
While there are improvements in the availability of specialized CTE elective courses at additional grade levels, parents and teachers are voicing concern about material and controversial changes to core courses in all disciplines, like:
- English – Ending English III Honors and English IV Honors, leaving juniors and seniors with the only options of on-level English, AP English, or Dual Credit English;
- Social Studies – Ending AP Government and AP Economics, courses that are widely and effectively used by Plano ISD students to take the AP exams and test out of college level courses;
- Science – Ending Physics Honors, leaving juniors and seniors with having to choose between on-level and AP Physics; and
- Math – Ending Honors Pre-Calculus, offering again only on-level and AP options, and in this case AP Pre-Calculus is not nearly as widely accepted at colleges for credit as other AP courses.
These changes take effect immediately for the 2024-2025 school year. GPAs will be affected.
Educate Plano 