Advanced Placement Precalculus student Doan Duong, a sophomore, studies in Room 901 on Sept. 19. AP Precalculus was introduced to the Clarke Central High School math curriculum at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year. “It’s a brand-new course this year from the College Board,” math department teacher and AP Precalculus teacher Eric Smith said. “(Administration was) looking to add an extra AP math and they were looking at this course to either be a springboard for students to go into AP Calculus or also as sort of a fourth math to kind of finish their high school math.” Photo by Janie Ripps
The College Board’s AP Precalculus course was introduced to CCHS in the Fall of the 2023-2024 school year.
In development since 2021 and launched by the College Board in May of 2022, Advanced Placement (AP) Precalculus became available at course registration for students at Clarke Central High School as of August 2023.
Combining Algebra Ⅱwith Precalculus standards, the course is designed to prepare students for other college-level mathematics courses, including AP Calculus, which is also offered at CCHS. Math department teacher Eric Smith is the only AP Precalculus instructor at CCHS.
“(Last year) the conversations kind of got started whether we want to offer it,” Smith said. “(Alexis) Scott, our instructional coach, went around and just asked several (math teachers) if we’d be interested in offering it and so it was kind of brought to us.”
According to Smith, there have been challenges in starting a new course.
“It’s interesting to be on the ground floor of a brand new course, (but) a couple of challenges is having students coming from two different courses coming into the same course,” Smith said. “I’ve got students that are coming in with more prerequisite knowledge than other students. But then (I’m) also trying to find enough resources that are just not available.”
Algebra Ⅱ is not a prerequisite for the course, as it is for regular Precalculus. For sophomore Doan Duong, who enrolled in the class straight from Honors Geometry – a 10th-grade math – the jump has been an adjustment.
“There were terms I wasn’t familiar with, but my teacher explains and we just gotta take it and apply it,” Duong said. “If (other students are) willing to skip (Algebra Ⅱ), just expect big changes and try to keep it up.”
Despite challenges, Smith feels that AP Precalculus is beneficial for CCHS students and is confident the class will improve as the school year continues.
“The way that we teach the concepts in this course does a better job of preparing those students that will then go on to Calculus and it gives a much more rigorous look at functions” Smith said. “(For) the students that are not going to go on to Calculus, they (still) get a deeper understanding of the content.”
