By Samantha Pinsky
Staff Writer
After 20 years of teaching Advanced Placement United States History Costa teacher Bill Fauver has decided to pass on the history course to current College Preparatory United States History teacher Steve Singiser for the 2013-14 school year.
Next year, Fauver will be leaving the AP program to teach CP Government, a class he has never taught in the past.
“This year made it clear to me that it was time for a change,” Fauver said. “This change was going to come soon anyway.”
Fauver’s AP U.S. History course is known for its academic intensity, as well as for maintaining AP test pass rates in the 90th percentile. In addition, the percentage of students who receive a 5 on the AP exam exceeds that of any other Costa AP class.
“It was a trade-off for a lot of people with Mr. Fauver because the class was really tough,” Singiser said. “That was offset by the fact that he’s really good. I’m going to be leaning on him for help next year pretty heavily because he’s been phenomenally successful.”
Singiser has previously taught CP U.S. History at Costa. The two classes contain the same general material but vary in structure and pace.
“I know I’m going to have to step up my game,” Singiser said. “The rigor level between the two classes is totally different. I am going to have to invent a lot of lesson plans in order to cover the topics in more depth we only graze over in the CP class.”
Next year, Singiser will drop his government class in order to focus on AP U.S. History and CP U.S. History.
“I will miss teaching the content, which I love,” Singiser said. “I won’t miss trying to get second semester seniors to try to be productive.”
Fauver will take over three CP Government sections as of next year.
“I have been wanting to teach government here throughout my entire career at Costa,” Fauver said. “Although I have been interested in teaching the class, I haven’t been able to teach a government class in 27 years,”
According to sophomore Jacob Hands, some prospective AP U.S. History students are concerned about whether the class will yield the same success with a new teacher.
“When I heard of Mr. Fauver’s decision not to teach the class next year, I was disappointed,” Hands said. “Though I’m still enrolled in the class, I’m not as confident about taking the class as I was before.”
Incoming government students also face a new choice of teachers with the addition of Fauver.
“I had never second guessed my choice to take AP Government until I learned that Fauver would be teaching CP,” junior Joe Marine said. “At that point, I reconsidered my choice to take that AP class.”
Regardless of the change, Fauver will continue to be a part of Costa’s history department by teaching government.
“Fauver has been successful with the program for a long time,” Singiser said. “I can only hope to be that way.”
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