English Language Arts

1. When do honors courses based on the new standards have to be in place?

The policy adopted by the SBE provides LEAs that are ready the option of implementing the revised honors standards at the beginning of the 2005-06 school year. For LEAs that need additional time, they will have until December 31, 2005 to develop honors courses based on the revised honors standards. The new standards will become effective for the 2006-07 school year.

2. Can a local school system develop one curriculum guide for an honors course and use that common curriculum guide throughout the high schools in the system? Or, must the school system with multiple high schools have a separate honors course curriculum guide for each high school?

This is a local decision. Some systems for greater consistency might develop a common curriculum guide for U.S. History, for example, and also have a common set of resource materials that might be collected for use. Common curriculum guides save time and resources and ensure there is a high consistency of alignment to the standards in each high school.

3. Who will monitor honors courses for alignment to the new honors standards?

The State Board of Education charged the high school instructional content consultants with periodically reviewing by random sample locally developed courses to determine their alignment with the new standards. The Department of Public Instruction is currently developing a procedure for conducting the random sample and for reviewing courses obtained from the sample.

4. Why is the state giving the school systems such a short time frame to implement the new honors standards?

The State Board of Education adopted the standards to provide a process for consistency in locally developed honors courses. Some school systems have honors courses that are already aligned with the standards. Other systems will use the materials provided for Minimum Course Requirements (MCRs) as a guide. Other systems may decide to postpone full implementation of the new honors standards beyond the extended December 2005 deadline until teachers have opportunity for professional development, if needed. These systems may decide to only offer the 600+ honors courses that are available through the community college system and/or Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate (AP/IB) courses that already have nationally developed criteria.

5. What are the minimum course requirements (MCRs) for admission to UNC? How will these honors course descriptions influence how local school systems are developing honors course descriptions?

The following courses are the minimum course requirements for admission to UNC universities and colleges. (These courses are established by UNC):

English I, II, III, IV
Algebra 2, Geometry, Integrated Mathematics 2, 3 (Algebra 1 and Integrated Mathematics 1 although required, may not receive honors credit)
Biology, Earth/Environmental Science (an honors physical science course will also be described)
Government/Economics (C&E), US History, World Studies
Two courses of the same Second Language (Second Language courses Level III and above receive honors credit. Honors goals and objectives for Level III and above Second Language courses have been developed and were approved by the State Board of Education in December 2004. These standards are included as a part of the Second Language Standard Course of Study that may be accessed using the following URL: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/second_languages/index.html.)
A selected Health/Physical Education course (An honors course for healthful living/physical education in currently being developed by a curriculum revision committee and will be presented to the State Board of Education for approval in December 2005. No locally developed healthful living/physical education courses are eligible for honors credit.)

The State Board of Education has charged the Department of Public Instruction instructional content consultants with providing additional information on developing honors courses for these courses. The SBE's request was made to ensure a greater degree of conformity and consistency for honors versions of these courses. The MCRs Honors Document will be ready to distribute to schools in July.

6. Will the state give schools a "grace period" or allow additional time to create honors courses?

The policy becomes effective for the 2005-06 school year. School systems that need additional time will have until December 2005 to develop honors courses aligned to the new standards. These courses will become effective the 2006-07 school year. If a school evaluates existing honors courses and determines that the current courses are not aligned and teachers need additional time and/or professional development in order to align honors courses to the new standards, the following options are available:
a) Offer to freshmen, sophomores, and juniors the 600+ honors courses that are approved for honors credit through the Memorandum of Understanding adopted by UNC-General Administration and the NC Community College System. Under this policy, seniors are exempt from receiving honors credit for these courses.
b) Offer AP/IB courses which may be awarded six (6) quality points.
c) Offer courses such as third- and fourth-year second languages, pre-calculus or non-AP/IB calculus that are already described as "honors" in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.
d) Continue to offer local honors courses for the 2005-06 school year that follow the old honors policy.

7. What is the purpose for having the extra paperwork, when teachers already have honors courses in place and plenty of paperwork?

The SBE approved the honors standards in order to have consistency in the implementation of honors courses throughout the state. Currently the implementation of honors courses is very uneven with some school systems already offering well-defined courses that are aligned with the new standards. Yet, there are other schools where honors courses are distinguished from non-honors courses by an assignment of a research paper or more homework. Often students who have taken a number of honors courses have to take remedial courses during their first year of matriculation at a two- or four-year college. The SBE has adopted these standards to provide teachers and principals with guidelines as to what should be included and assessed in honors courses.

8. Are there any existing honors courses that are exempt from the new process?

The following courses are defined as "inherently advanced" and are therefore exempt from this policy:
3rd and 4th year second languages (1043 French III, 1044 French IV, 1048 Chinese III, 1049 Chinese IV, 1053 Spanish III, 1054 Spanish IV, 1062 German III, 1063 German IV, 1068 Japanese III, 1069 Japanese IV, 1082 Latin III, 1083 Latin IV, 1402 Spanish for Native Speakers II, 1097 Other Foreign Languages III, 1098 Other Foreign Languages IV)
AP/IB courses
Pre-calculus
Non-AP/IB calculus

9. What students (class, grade level, etc.) will the new honors standards effect?

The new standards will be in effect for all 9-12 students beginning in 2005-06. (School systems that need additional time will have until December 2005 to develop the courses aligned to the new standards. Their courses will go into effect for the 2006-07 school year.)

10. Do locally-developed honors courses have to follow and/or be aligned with the NC Standard Course of Study?

Yes. Locally developed courses should be aligned to the NC Standard Course of Study. In addition, locally developed courses must be aligned to the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Standards adopted by the State Board of Education.

11. When should parents and students be informed about honors courses?

Because the 600+ honors courses that are offered in the community college system are currently in effect for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, parents and students should already be informed about the availability of these courses. It is important that they know the process for registering for these courses and the calendar for these courses may differ from the public school calendar.

The new honors standards will go into effect for the 2005-06 school year. Therefore, parents and students should receive information about the new standards and the implementation date for an individual school system as soon as possible.

12. How do honors courses differ from AP/IB courses?

Honors courses are defined at the local or state level based on the new honors standards. They receive five (5) quality points on the standardized transcript. AP/IB courses are defined by either the College Board Advanced Placement (AP) or the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB) based on their national standards. These courses also have national assessments that are aligned to the course and require additional funds to take. AP/IB courses receive six (6) quality points on the standardized transcript.

13. May students take the same course repeatedly to receive honors credit over and over again for the same course?

No. A student may only take an honors version of a course one time for credit.

14. Does the following previous rule still apply? "In order to offer an honors level course at a school, the school must offer the regular level course as well."

No. This rule no longer applies. A school may decide to only offer an honors version of a course.

15. What are the CTE courses that are eligible for honors credit? What does "eligible for honors credit" mean as applied to CTE?

a) The following CTE courses are eligible for honors credit for the 2004-05 school year:

e-Commerce I
e-Commerce II
Network Administration II - Linux
Network Administration II - Microsoft
Network Administration II - Novell
Computer Programming II
Database Programming I
Database Programming II
Computer Engineering Technology II
Network Engineering Technology II
Network Engineering Technology III

For this school year only, local administrators may decide to award one (1) point of honors credit to students enrolled in these courses. These students do not have to achieve proficiency on the industry certification criteria.

b) For the 2005-06 school year, the above referenced 11 courses plus the following courses will be eligible for honors credit if local administrators determine that the locally implemented course is aligned to the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Standards as adopted by the State Board of Education.

Computerized Accounting II
Drafting II/III Architecture
Drafting II/III Engineering
Early Childhood Education II
Electronics II
Horticulture II
Medical Sciences II
Principles of Technology II
Scientific and Technical Visualization II
Strategic Marketing

16. Will each honors course have a separate honors course that differs from the "regular" or "traditional" course?

Honors courses will be designated by placing a "5" in the academic level field.

17. What will the July document include?

The honors course document will have the following format:

I. Introduction
II. The Honors Policy
III. Rationale for the policy
IV. Honors course material by content area -- the Minimum Course Requirements (MCRs) for UNC will be included here. The types of information included in this section will vary among content areas. There will be course descriptions, course outlines and some strategies for expanding standard course of study goals and objectives.
V. Appendix -- other information that content areas may want to include as additional resources for the development of honors courses in a specific content area.