Advanced Placement (AP) courses are a staple in the typical Pine View high schooler’s courseload. Offering 35 of the 38 available College Board AP courses, Pine View would be considered an “AP School” according to AP Program Coordinator, Dr. Lori Wiley.
Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, to continue our tradition of excellence, Pine View will be offering a newer program by College Board: Pre-AP.
The College Board website states, “Across Pre-AP courses, students experience instructional practices and routines that help them develop the important critical thinking skills needed to succeed in AP.”
Essentially, the Pre-AP courses should help students prepare for taking future AP courses.
College Board currently has 12 available Pre-AP classes and next year, Pine View will provide Pre-AP English 1 Honors.
Wiley explained they will introduce this course to the incoming freshman in place of English 1 Honors, and in subsequent years those students will continue to Pre-AP English 2.
These students will be placed on this trajectory without an English 1 Honors option, so there will be no noticeable change for the students.
However, “the teachers will go through a training, a summer institute that College Board puts on, in the same way that all of our AP teachers attend trainings,” Wiley said.
This will ensure that the teachers are prepared to teach the new curriculum.
English Department Head Megan O’Mahony reassured that there won’t be many changes to worry about.
“There will be no English Honors 1, but it will be the same class… just meeting more AP guidelines,” O’Mahony said.
College Board lists three main areas of focus that they hope Pre-AP English 1 will help students with, including “Reading Closely,” “Valuing Evidence,” and “Noticing Language Choices.”
College Board also explains that many of the skills learned in Pre-AP courses align with the methodologies enforced in AP Capstone, “…providing a natural bridge for students to succeed in AP Capstone.”
The goal of bringing Pre-AP to Pine View is “that students will feel more confident when they are registering for their junior year classes to sign up for AP Lang,” O’Mahony said.
There are many important skills AP English Language and Composition provides, so giving students the background needed to succeed in that class should be beneficial in the long run.
If a student still feels unsure about the AP English route after taking the Pre-AP courses their freshman and sophomore years, “students have the option to choose differently,” Wiley said, “but what this will do is provide a consistent foundation for all students.”
Due to Pine View’s unique trait of being a grade 2-12 school, the middle and high school teachers often work together, this is called Vertical Planning.
With Vertical Planning all the teachers for a certain subject will share tips on how best to prepare students as they move up through the classes. The hope is that Pre-AP will be another step in helping students prepare for AP Language and Composition and AP Literature and Composition in their final years of high school.