Two new courses may make their way into the York County School Division in the future: Advanced Course Experience and Student Technology Leadership Corps.
Each year, the YCSD administration holds a series of discussions and meetings about its strategic plan, which is a list of goals for the division. Among others gathering for the sake of the division, the middle school and high school work groups met.
The work groups — comprising teachers, parents, administrators and school board members — discussed what changes or implementations they would like to see in YCSD curriculum to achieve goals in the strategic plan. Suggestions from each of those discussions were sent to the academic office where two new courses were suggested to reflect the suggestions: Advanced Course Experience and Student Technology Leadership Corps.
The school board heard about the new courses at its Nov. 4 meeting. At the time, the middle school course was called AP Experience and board members expressed concern it suggested the course was designated for only advanced students.
Since then, the courses returned to the academic office and have been revised to reflect they are not only for advanced students. Those revisions included a name change from AP Experience to Advanced Course Experience.
Both the middle and high school courses proposed are in the preliminary phases. The curriculum is yet to be written and the school board is still in early discussions about them.
Advanced Course Experience would be an introduction for middle school students to advanced classes. An unofficial course description says it would help “develop foundational skills, key strategies, and content knowledge students need to be successful in challenging courses, such as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses.”
Instructional Specialist for Curriculum Darlene Graham said the Advanced Course Experience would be a one-semester course for seventh- and eighth-grade students. Graham also said it would be focused on “experiential learning” and “non-prescriptive learning.”
The high school work group suggested a new course called Student Technology Leadership Corps, a new technology-based course for York County high school students. Coordinator of Online Learning Reggie Fox , who helped put together the proposals for both the middle and high school courses, said the Corps would allow students to shadow YCSD employees in the IT department.
Though no curriculum has been written for the course, Fox said the plan is to have the course teach students about hardware, software, web applications, online safety and responsible use of the internet. The unofficial course description also indicates students will play an integral role in the course.
“Viewed as the technology gurus of the school community, students will provide assistance with hardware, software, networking, troubleshooting, and provide instructional support for the integration of technology,” the description says.
Both the Advanced Course Experience and Student Technology Leadership Corps will go back before school board in December for consideration.
