Coronado High School is offering more honors and advanced placement (AP) courses than ever before, and students are performing well, according to Dr. Megan Battle, Director of Learning for Coronado Unified School District. CHS now offers a total of 21 AP courses and eight honors courses. This includes a new Honors Integrated Math 3 class and an AP Spanish Literature course.
More than 50% of students are currently taking AP courses, and they’re up for the challenge; the average CHS student GPA is 3.48, with the highest GPA clocking in at 4.69. When it comes to AP testing, more than 70% of students who enroll in AP classes actually take the exam, and the average percentage of students who score a 3, 4, or 5 on their tests is 86%.
“That’s up 6% from previous years, and our kids are testing above the global pass rate in almost every single AP class,” said Battle.
Despite the implementation of the 4×4 schedule, and the fact that some students will take an AP test in the spring for a course they took in the fall, there hasn’t been a drop in pass rates.
“It was definitely a concern we heard from the community when we transitioned to the schedule, and we’ve made some tweaks with some of the classes, and we are seeing that our pass rate has not been affected by that,” said Battle.
CUSD currently offers honors courses ranging from Pre-Calculus Honors to English 10 Honors and honors classes in biomedical innovation and engineering, design and development. AP courses include everything from AP Biology and AP Environmental Science to AP French and US History.
Even freshmen can take an AP class, AP Human Geography.
“AP Human Geography has an 89% pass rate, which is really high compared to the global average at 56%,” said Battle.
Not only do students get challenged in AP classes, but it’s considered college-level work. If students score a 3, 4, or 5, they can get college credit.
“That’s an incentive,” said Battle. “We want to offer these opportunities to our students to offer high-level courses with this rigor and content, and the opportunity to earn some of those credits.”
Another way high-achieving students can succeed is by taking advantage of the dual enrollment classes. Right now, CHS offers five dual enrollment courses for college credit. They include American Sign Language 1, American Sign Language 2, Analytic Geometry and Calculus, Intro to Business, and Oral Communication. The classes vary each year, and they offer a way to give students the opportunity to get guaranteed college credit.
“I think the dual enrollment option has been really great for our students because it is guaranteed college credit, so students who pass the class get a college credit that is transferable anywhere,” said Battle. “Whereas with an AP class, you aren’t necessarily sure.”
But what about students who are headed to trade schools, or who want to start working right after graduation? CHS offers lots of options (14, to be exact) in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways. Students can get internships and obtain work-based learning out in the community, and some of the courses are even weighted.
“Our CTE pathways offer a variety of options for kids, anywhere from the arts to the sciences and it gives them the opportunity to see what those skills look like in the real world,” said Battle.
She said that the CUSD head counselor Kristen Ereno has been working with local schools and agencies to have them come to CHS and share information on the jobs that are actually needed in San Diego, right now.
“This includes places that you can go to directly after high school into the workforce,” said Battle. “There is a lot of skill-based work that our students don’t think about, that’s a real need in our community. So we try to bring them data through our counseling department so our students are aware of what jobs exist, and where those needs are.”
She says there are lots of options in computer science, and in the field of welding, there are jobs that start paying at $60k a year, right over the bridge.
Battle says that CUSD is trying to be very intentional about building pathways down to the middle school and elementary schools, so even the youngest learners can start thinking about different areas they might want to focus on.
“So by the time they get to high school, they can hone in on one or two pathways,” said Battle. “It’s very exciting.”
