How Should the American High School Be Redesigned? Academic Standards, Technology (2005)

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Public high schools offer a wide variety of elective courses, although the availability of such courses depends upon each particular school's financial situation. Some schools and states require students to earn a few credits of classes considered electives, most commonly foreign language and physical education. Common types of electives include: Visual arts (drawing, sculpture, painting, photography, film studies, and art history) Performing arts (choir, drama, band, orchestra, dance, guitar) Vocational education (woodworking, metalworking, computer-aided drafting, automobile repair, agriculture, cosmetology, FFA) Computer science/information technology (word processing, computer programming, graphic design, computer club, Web design and web programming, video game design, music production, film production) Journalism/publishing (school newspaper, yearbook, television production) Foreign languages (French, German, Italian, and Spanish are common; Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Greek, Latin, Korean, Dutch, and Portuguese are less common, though the former two are gaining increased popularity. Business Education (Accounting, Data Processing, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Business, Information and Communication Technology, Management, Marketing, and Secretarial) Family and consumer science/health (nutrition, nursing, culinary, child development, and additional physical education and weight training classes) Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (In some schools, JROTC may replace a credit of health or P.E.) Some American high schools offer drivers' education. At some schools, a student can take it during school as a regular course for a credit. At some schools, drivers education courses are only available after school. Not all high schools contain the same rigorous coursework as others. Most high and middle schools have classes known as "honors" classes for motivated and gifted students, where the quality of education is higher and much more is expected from the enrolled student. Some states and cities offer special high schools with examinations to admit only the highest performing students, such as Boston Latin School or Alexandria, Virginia's Thomas Jefferson High School. Other high schools cater to the arts. Some schools have been set up for students who do not succeed with normal academic standards; some have even been created for special social groups such as LGBT students. If government funds are available, a high school may provide Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, which are special forms of honors classes. AP courses are usually taken during the second, third, or fourth years of high school, either as a replacement for a typical third-year course (e.g. taking AP English III as a replacement for Honors English III), a refresher of an earlier course (e.g. taking AP Environmental Science in the fourth year after taking Ecology as a sophomore), or simply as a way to study something interesting during senior year (e.g. AP European History). IB courses are often taken as part of a larger, overall program (see IB Diploma Programme). They sometimes last two years and are typically taken in the final two years of high school. To obtain the IB Diploma, IB courses are taken as a block of seven courses (i.e. IB chemistry must be taken as a part of a larger IB curriculum with six other IB courses). It is possible for students to take less than seven courses at IB level but they won't be awarded an IB diploma; only certificates for courses they have completed. Most post-secondary institutions take AP or IB exam results into consideration in the admissions process. Because AP and IB courses are supposed to be the equivalent of freshman year college courses, post-secondary institutions may grant unit credits which enables students to graduate early. Both public schools and private schools in wealthy neighborhoods are able to provide many more AP and IB course options than impoverished inner-city high schools; this difference is seen as a major cause of the differing outcomes for their graduates. Also, in states with well-developed community college systems, there are often mechanisms by which gifted students may seek permission from their school district to attend community college courses full-time during the summer or during weekends and evenings during the school year. The units earned this way can often be transferred to one's chosen university and can facilitate early graduation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_School_in_the_United_States