AP World History discontinued for 2023-2024
May 24 2023 | Sarah Park
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Class in session: Students from the Block 4 Language Assisted (LA) Biology work together to make vocabulary photo cards. Next year, the two LA Science classes will be reorganized into three Multilingual Science classes.
Advanced Placement (AP) World History will not be offered in the 2023-2024 school year due to insufficient student registration, Principal Dr. Barbara Georges said.
The administration requires classes to have a minimum of 17 students for the course to be taught, and this year, the class had less than the required minimum, Georges said. The class originator, Matthew Whipple, AP World History Teacher, expressed disappointment at the loss of a course he created 23 years ago.
“[This year, my] students took [AP World History] because they were excited about history,” Whipple said. “For students who are [equally as] passionate, missing out on [this class] is a loss.”
Senior Sydney Kim chose to take AP World History for a concentrated learning approach, wanting to deepen her perspective on the world.
“By learning about social, economic, and political patterns [from] a huge range of times and places, [AP World History] has made me a better history student and thinker,” Kim said.
After taking Honors World History her freshman year, junior Chloe Eimer was excited to take a class that would expand on what she previously learned. Because she enjoys taking a history-intensive course, she was sad to hear that AP World History would not be running her senior year.
“Without [AP World History], I will [lose the experience] to view history from the perspective of diverse groups,” Eimer said.
Even without the class, Whipple hopes students will continue to show interest in world history by reading global news and history books. “We spend a lot of time in the Social Studies [Department] focusing on the American experience, and [while] that is important, there is more than just America,” Whipple said. “Having a class that expands your horizons outside of the traditional Eurocentric perspective matters.”
Even without the class, Whipple hopes students will continue to show interest in world history by reading global news and history books. “We spend a lot of time in the Social Studies [Department] focusing on the American experience, and [while] that is important, there is more than just America,” Whipple said. “Having a class that expands your horizons outside of the traditional Eurocentric perspective matters.”