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Course Details

Our school is committed to building course structures that support the mental health of our students and that promote equity in our educational offerings as an actively anti-racist school.

Multi-Level Courses

A multi-level course is a single classroom with the same teacher(s) in which students are enrolled in more than one level of the course (College Prep, Advanced College Prep, Honors).

While there are some classes that have run as multi-level courses for many years and are well known to students, Newton South may make the decision to run other multi-level courses after registration occurs in order to meet our student requests and address equity concerns.

We believe in the power of multi-level courses because they:

  • Provide a rich experience for students within a diverse learning community.
  • Increase access and equity for all students by dismantling structures where implicit bias results in inadvertently sorting students by race, gender, and/or socioeconomic status based on the subject area and level.
  • Provide students with access to support and opportunity for challenge in the same learning community.
  • Allow Newton South to offer classes that may not have enough enrollment to run as single-level classes.

Students should sign up for courses and levels that meet their need for support and challenge. If a student has specific concerns about multi-level courses, they may speak to the department chair.

Course Levels

With each level change, there is a different expectation that students are able to transfer and apply content and skills learned in class to increasingly abstract and novel problems and situations.

College Preparatory (CP)

In College Preparatory classes, students learn core grade-level content and skills of the course that they will need for future study in the discipline. Lessons are presented at a flexible pace. Students investigate, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and solve problems with targeted support.

Advanced College Preparatory (ACP)

In Advanced College Preparatory classes, students learn core grade-level content and skills of the course that they will need for future study in the discipline. Additional content may be presented. Students investigate, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and solve problems.

In the Mathematics department, there is one additional level called, “Accelerated,” that is between the ACP and Honors level.

Honors/AP

In Honors or AP classes, students learn core grade-level content and skills that they will need for future study in the discipline. Lessons are taught at a rigorous pace. Additional content will be presented. Students investigate, analyze, synthesize, evaluate and apply content and skills learned in class to novel situations.

No Level (N)

Courses designated as “No Level” will receive standard letter grades and are not included in a student’s GPA.

Pass-Fail (P-F)

Classes designated as “Pass-Fail” will receive a grade of a P, F, or, in some cases, A. Pass-Fail courses are not included in a student’s GPA calculation.