This past March, the College Board revealed their latest Advanced Placement course: AP Precalculus. The class was designed to increase the number of available college-level math courses, with College Board touting Precalculus as “one of the most powerful math courses in American high schools.”

West Hartford has already begun the process of adopting this new course into its curriculum. Monique Albani-Ethier, Hall’s Math Department Supervisor, has been leading West Hartford’s Precalculus teachers in reviewing the College Board’s AP Precalculus Course and exam description, or CED. 

“Teachers are attending training this summer to learn more about the course,” Albani-Ethier says. “We will offer the opportunity for students to sign up for the exam and receive optional preparation materials from their teacher, but we will not fully convert our precalc courses to have an AP designation. Our course curricula already cover the content included on the exam but do not currently align to the same sequence as outlined in the CED. Our plan is to move into full alignment with AP Precalculus in 2024-2025.”

Still, the new course brings up more questions. Will offering an AP Precalculus class impact the rigor of the honors and standard courses? Albani-Ethier doesn’t believe the difficulty of these classes will change. 

As Albani-Ethier understands it, Honors Precalculus will remain a high-level math class, with the AP course offering greater emphasis on modeling and the strategic use of graphing technology, along with the potential for college credit. 

So how do you sign up? Don’t worry as there’s no need to re-do course selections. West Hartford is rolling out the AP Precalculus class via a “soft launch.”  That means, for the 2023-2024 school year, students will essentially be beta testing the course. As far as course selections go, Albani-Ethier says they shouldn’t be altered, seeing that the plan is not to fully change any of the courses.