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  Accelerated and Enriched Instruction → High School Programs → Honors and Advanced Placement Courses

Honors and Advanced Placement Courses

Overview

Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), and advanced-level courses provide rigorous and challenging studies for highly able and potentially high-achieving students who are capable or motivated to pursue rigorous and challenging instruction. Students enroll in individual Honors, AP, and advanced-level courses and not in an Honors program as a whole.

Honors Courses

Honors courses include course work in art, computer science, English, foreign languages, mathematics, music, science, and social studies. The curriculum in each Honors course includes appropriate adaptations for accelerated and enriched learning for pursuing in-depth studies that require abstract and higher-order thinking skills. Honors courses provide expectations and opportunities for students to work independently at an accelerated pace, to engage in more rigorous and complex content and processes, and to develop authentic products that reflect students' understanding of key concepts.

AP courses

AP courses are those for which a College Board Advanced Placement examination exists. A qualifying score on an AP exam may give the student college credit or advanced standing in the subject in many colleges. These courses include concepts and skills that help prepare students for the AP exams.

AP courses are available in the following MCPS content areas.

  • Art
  • Information Technology/Computer Science
  • English
  • Foreign Languages
  • Mathematics
  • Music
  • Science
  • Social Studies

Advanced-Level courses are based upon previous achievement in a sequence of study. Advanced-level courses are available in the following MCPS content areas.

  • Information Technology/Computer Science
  • Foreign Languages
  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Blair magnet courses
  • Selected International Baccalaureate courses
  • Poolesville Global Ecology courses
  • Career and Technical Education
  • Dual Enrollment

Students in Honors, AP, and advanced-level courses are expected to maintain at least a C average. Students who receive a grade of D or E over two consecutive marking periods should be counseled and supported.

Find Courses

AP, Honors, and IB courses are listed in the High School Course Bulletin