Advanced Placement Economics class added due to increase in student enrollment

AP Economics class enrollment is nearly doubled this year as compared to last year, which has led to an increase in AP Economics classes.

According to economics teacher DJ Cook, AP Economics is a rigorous course which places high demands on the student’s performance, and covers around 45 chapters in 35 classes. However, despite Cook’s warning of the difficulty level, very few students switched from AP into the CP level.

“We’ve whittled away [some of the class size] once I gave my precursor to say ‘Hey this is what the class is; if you don’t like it come down to CP –– I’m teaching that too but come down now before it’s too late,’” Cook said.

The class sizes themselves have not grown; however, the number of classes he is teaching and the number of students has.

“To my understanding, the largest AP [economics] student body we’ve ever had is 57 individuals; this year it started off at 96,” Cook said.

Due to the large increase in students, there initially weren’t enough textbooks for each person, according to history teacher Tim Chevalier.

“We have enough books now, but it was down to the wire. The school had to put in a special rush order in December to get enough books by January,” Chevalier said.

The large number of enrolled students was partly due to prerequisites and appeals. A passing AP United States History exam score is stated to be a requirement for the class; however, due to the time it takes to receive the scores, they are not always available. There is also an appeals process for students if there is space in the class.

“I had roughly 16 appeals and I had 80 kids –– 80 kids is three classes almost –– so, I could either have two classes of 40 and not let anybody in or I could have three classes of around 32 and let the people in that appealed. So, that’s what happened,” Martin said.

According to senior Yui Sato, due to the extra class, the classes themselves are not much larger than normal, and there are even some empty seats.

“I like this smaller class size because it offers more individualized attention and better collaboration,” senior Matt Lee wrote to the Talon.

Cook said that the extra class of students can mean a busier seventh period as more students are coming in for help.

“I take that as a challenge and a task to try and get as many of them to pass as possible,” Cook said. “But, because of how many students there are, [my seventh period] is chaos.”