Mira Costa considers adding new History classes to 2016-2017 school year

By Eric Furth
Calendar Editor

Costa’s History Department is currently lobbying for two new Honors History classes to be added to the curriculum for the 2016-2017 school year.

The proposed classes, U.S. History Honors and World History Honors, will be available to 11th and 10th grade, respectively, as alternatives to APUSH or CP U.S. History and AP Euro or CP Modern World History.

“The two curricula are similar with an increased rigor, use of primary source documents and an increase in the quantity and quality of the writing expected,” Costa principal Dr. Ben Dale said. “These are courses designed to be in between the difficulty of a CP and AP course.”

According to co-chair of the Mira Costa History Department Bill Fauver, both courses will have a focus on primary source evaluation and historiography more than their CP counterparts, but will lack the AP test in May.

“Many [students who are interested in history] either took our CP classes and desired more or opted for summer school, which provides almost none of the skills students need and is increasingly taught by outsiders who have little to no experience in high school social studies,” Fauver said. “This proposed Honors level provides a viable and academically sound choice for them.”

A workshop on Jan. 26 presenting the two courses to the School Board, followed by Board approval will decide whether these two classes are added to Costa’s history class selection.

“As a department, we believe we have developed a larger student population that really does value the skills that history education brings and wants to challenge themselves in developing those skills,” Fauver said.