Changes are being made at Papillion Lavista High School, sparking debates amongst the school and students. Along with many other aspects evolving with the school, honors classes are beginning to be phased out.
As students are making their schedules, there are hard decisions to make as they are trying to set themselves up for success in future years. As each year goes by the school is gradually taking away honors classes, and narrowing it down to on-level and AP classes.
Grade nine teacher Mr. Tim Williams doesn’t completely agree with these new changes within the classes for students to take.
“I teach Honors American History, but once that is taken away, the honors level students might be at a disadvantage,” Williams said. “Teachers wouldn’t be able to push the same expectations in on-level classes.”
With the available class levels starting to dwindle down, students are wondering what options they are left with for their upcoming classes.
“The school will still support AP classes so those who want to achieve that higher GPA can still push themselves to that point,” Williams said.
Although there is more than one level of difficulty left to choose from, many honors-level students are left wondering what is best for them.
“Honors students tend to perform at a higher level because they have more interest in the subject, but going forward they might struggle to be in classes that are too hard for them, or being with students who don’t have as much interest in the subject,” Williams said.
This change also makes an impact on the sophomores and juniors who have already spent most of their time in high school relying on honors level classes.
“I am currently in Honors English 11 and Honors Algebra 2, and I was also in an AP government class last semester,” junior Olivia Wahl said. “If there were an honors option I would have preferred that.”
Looking at their future, some students don’t know to what extent they should push themselves, as they are trying to prepare for the upcoming years in school.
“I like to push myself so it looks better for colleges, but I try to not put too much pressure on myself,” junior Karlyn Francis said.
Students also struggle to make these decisions about what they want to do, based on how comfortable they feel in each classroom environment.
“I will feel like what I am going to be doing is either too easy or too hard,” Wahl said.
The key to success in high school is setting yourself up for it, but now some students don’t quite know the best way to do that for themselves.
“I am in mostly honors classes right now, with one AP class, and I feel like it is the perfect amount of challenge for myself,” Francis said.
While the subject has its critics, and some questioning their ability to thrive, there will be ups and downs to every change made in the future of education. Only time will tell the real results of this shift for our school.