In the past MCHS has been criticized for not offering higher level classes for freshmen and sophomores, and now that the high school is offering them, it seems as if the word about how great these classes are for the students that experience them. MCHS has had advanced placement classes for Juniors and Seniors available in past years, but many people have turned away by the lack of higher-level options for the underclassmen and the belief that the curriculum was not challenging enough.
Now, Michigan City’s administration have put plans for the honors classes, extra support, and “middle-tier” student classes into place. Through these options, MCHS is able to focus on making their students college and career ready.
Starting with students like myself and the rest of the class of 2018, freshmen are offered a trio of different paths which help every level of students that attend the school.
High-ability students are offered the ‘Honors College’ track in which the students are pushed to their potential with an advanced curriculum.
The ‘Early College High School’ track focuses on providing students with a strong foundation for success in college and careers later down the road.
The third option is the ‘Freshman Academy’. The Freshman Academy is designed to provide extra support to those students needing it in the core classes.
As a student on the ‘Honors College’ track, I can speak firsthand of the benefits. One goal of dividing the freshmen was to make smaller learning communities where kids can flourish, no matter their level of intelligence.
As the school year started and continued, it was easy to tell exactly who you have classes with. You may not know everyone’s name, because no matter what way you look at it, there are a lot of people, but you know the face when you see it. The impression with big schools is that everyone is just a number, nothing more. But now more than ever, it is easy to tell just how untrue the general opinion is.
Having good teachers is always a blessing and with academic honors classes, it is relatively easy to tell how the rest of the year will go, and a great deal of it is based on the teacher with most of the teachers really knowing how to engage their students and help them to succeed.
The ‘Early College High School’ is the equivalent to the freshman classes in past years. While it seems like the vast majority of students would be on this track, only 125 students are accepted into ‘Early College’. In the long-run students receive a strong foundation for success in college and career. While the curriculum for ‘Early College’ is similar to the more basic levels used in the past, students are welcome to take the advance classes as well.
The ‘Freshman Academy’ program is designed to encourage and support students who need it. The focus of these courses are aspects such as study/organizational habits and ensuring the students maintain an average reading level. The class sizes are smaller in this track than other freshman tracks are. The class sizes are smaller and a counselor is focused on the students’ needs all so that all the students of MCHS get the most out of their education.
While great academic honors classes are starting to be offered to incoming freshmen and every class from here on out, MCHS has had dual-credit classes in partnership with PNC and Ivy Tech for years. These courses are open to any students willing to take the challenge and are taught by high school teachers. However, just because these classes are taught by high school teachers, does not mean they are high school level. Credits earned while taking these rigorous classes transfer to colleges and universities all over the country.
While students have been a big factor in making MCHS the new and improved place that it is compared to what it was years ago, the faculty set everything up for us. Some people may not like change, but when you compare the City now to ten years ago, change is the best thing that has happened to this school.