By: Matthew Palma and Allegra Burke
It is known that Port Chester High School offers a handful of courses granting students an opportunity to earn college credits through Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses. Many are familiar with the College Board and their infamous AP exams, but some may not be too familiar with IB and its courses. PCHS is proud to offer fourteen AP courses and fifteen IB courses (including six Higher Level courses and nine Standard Level courses). However, some have questioned the usefulness of SL courses for college credit in comparison to IB HL courses or AP courses.
College Board is an American based non-profit organization whose mission is to expand accessibility to higher education. The organization is known for its SAT, a standardized test which more than a million students use to apply to colleges. Many are also aware that College Board has the Advanced Placement program which can be found in many high schools throughout the United States, including PCHS. Advanced Placement courses are rigorous, college level courses which offer students a chance to earn college credit by taking an exam towards the end of the scholastic year. The school offers a handful of AP courses, including four STEM subjects: calculus, statistics, physics, computer science, and environmental science. Many students in the school take interest in STEM subjects, but are unable to take AP courses corresponding to their preferred subject, be it chemistry or biology. This means that many may not have the opportunity to learn content they are passionate about at an advanced level, in addition to having a chance to earn college credit. Of course teachers would need to complete certain training and understand content at a certain level, as well as the fact that there would need to be a certain amount of students willing to take these courses for the school to be able to reasonably implement these classes, which raises complications.
The International Baccalaureate program encourages students to expand their knowledge by taking higher level courses, and is highly respected among colleges and universities around the World. Students have the opportunity to take college level courses and even have the option to enroll in the diploma program where students can acquire an IB diploma which can be used to gain college credits. There is the option to take the full IB diploma which requires junior and senior years to be full of IB SL and HL level courses. The other option is to take individual IB courses. SL (standard level) IB classes are a good choice if you would like to challenge yourself and have already succeeded in honors level classes. On the other hand HL (higher level) IB classes are more equivalent to the rigor of an AP class and will require more material learned for the IB exam, being a more equivalent alternative to them in comparison to SL classes. The advantage with HL classes is most colleges will take an individual credit if you score a 4 or higher as your IB score, but an SL level course will not allow you to obtain college credit without the full IB diploma, even if you were to score a 7/7. At PCHS, biology, chemistry, environmental science, and mathematics are only offered at an SL level. This limits the material that students can learn, especially students that are interested in STEM fields and may want to pursue a career in STEM for their future. In order for these students to expand their knowledge on these topics they need to be able to take harder coursework regarding science and mathematics. Many students at PCHS would appreciate an increase in the number of HL classes offered. This would give students the chance to acquire more college credits and would lower the cost of their college education.