Honors & AP Courses

Colorado Springs charter schools, like CIVA, offer honors and advanced placement classes and the AP program in high schools across the nation (and Canada) for students looking to enhance their educational experience. AP, or Advanced Placement, courses are designed for high school students that have a curriculum at the college level and have the added benefit of offering college credit to the student. High school honors courses are also designed to be challenging but do not offer the chance for college credit.

Taking advantage of the AP and honors classes in high school is recommended by many charter schools. There are numerous residual benefits from selecting a more challenging academic path in high school:

When the time comes, students are better prepared for college which helps to ease the shock of the transition from child to independent adult. Those students who have prepared their minds for a higher-level curriculum and college-style examinations will be able to adapt more easily to their new surroundings.
Having a head start on college credits through the honors & AP class program is a phenomenal benefit awarded to those students who have accepted the challenge to work hard in high school. Investing time and effort in enhancing the building blocks of a successful career path is undoubtedly going to produce long-term dividends.
Students who enroll in Advanced Placement courses in high school typically have a more driven attitude toward academics. In classes, students will mingle with like-minded students which will encourage them to positively influence each other—encouraging healthy relationships and stimulating constructive growth.
Enrolling in honors or AP high school courses develops skills for working hard and promotes leadership skills, accountability, and a sense of personal accomplishment which will help to boost confidence during a time of potential struggle as students begin to grasp onto transitioning out of childhood.
More stringent content to study helps to develop quality organizational skills, an increased knowledge base, and critical thinking skills to improve cognitive abilities.

CIVA Charter High School proudly encourages our students to challenge themselves and set expectations that encourage healthy ambition. We aim to enable our Colorado Springs high school students with the skills they need to continue to excel in their academic path through programs such as honors and AP classes as they continue onward to the next step of their journey.

AP ENGLISH, LANGUAGE, AND COMPOSITION
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 11
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: Junior status
The AP English, Language, and Composition course is an Advanced Placement course that aligns to the introductory-college level composition course. This course introduces students to close reading and analysis of rhetorical strategies. Students engage in reading and writing for a variety of purposes, audiences, and other rhetorical devices. Writing assignments cover purposes including exposition, argumentation, persuasion, and synthesis. Students will be able to analyze and produce writing with a variety of rhetorical strategies.

AP ENGLISH, LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 12
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: Senior status
The AP English Literature and Composition course aligns with an introductory college-level literary analysis course. The course engages students in the close reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature to deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure. As they read, students in this Advanced Placement course consider a work’s structure, style, and themes, as well as its use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Writing assignments include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays that require students to analyze and interpret literary works.

PRE-AP DRAWING/PAINTING
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 10, 11, 12
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: Previous Art Course
This Pre-Advanced Placement course is designed for highly motivated students who are seriously interested in the study of art. Pre-AP takes the investigating and accurate rendering skills from previous art classes to the next level. Each project encourages the exploration and development of a personal voice and vision. Students will interpret and manipulate color, value, line, and other elements of art to develop portfolio-quality pieces. This course also serves as the foundation for AP Studio Art.

AP STUDIO ART
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 11, 12
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: Completion of Pre-AP or Teacher approval
The AP Studio course is an Advanced Placement course designed for students who are seriously interested in the practical experience of art and wish to develop mastery in the concept, composition, and execution of their ideas. AP Studio Art is not based on a written exam; instead, students submit portfolios for evaluation at the end of the school year. In building the portfolio, students experience a variety of concepts, techniques, and approaches designed to help them demonstrate their abilities as well as their versatility with techniques, problem-solving, and ideation. Students develop a body of work for the concentration section of the portfolio that investigates an idea of personal interest to them. There are two portfolios available to participate in Drawing or 2-D Art and Design.

ENGLISH AP & HONORS CLASSES

ENGLISH HONORS 1, 2
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 9
Credit per Semester: 5.0
English Honors 1 and 2 is an English course that will focus on enhanced levels of reading and writing. An academic emphasis will be placed on short stories, novels, poetry, literary terms, and the five-paragraph persuasive and expository essay format.

ENGLISH HONORS 3, 4
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 10
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: English 1, 2
English Honors 3, 4 is a rigorous Pre-Advanced Placement course that will focus on the application of the reading/writing and classroom skills learned in English 1, 2. English Honors 3 and 4 students will be expected to apply proper classroom decorum to lectures, class discussions, and cooperative group learning. In addition to applying literary/poetic terms, students will expand beyond writing a well-structured five-paragraph essay.

MATHEMATICS AP & HONORS CLASSES

ALGEBRA 3, 4 HONORS
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 11, 12
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: Teacher Approval, Algebra 1,2 and Geometry 1,2
This honors course makes mathematics relevant by using math skills in a problem-solving environment. The course includes the following concepts at a more challenging level: complex number systems, graphing, relations and functions, systems of equations, polynomial functions, determinants, logarithmic and exponential series and sequences, functions, analytic geometry, conic sections, matrices, and probability.

ALGEBRA INVESTIGATIONS 1, 2 HONORS
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 9
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: None,
This honors course focuses on algebraic topics including vocabulary, skills, and applications to real-life and mathematical situations where students develop critical thinking skills and problem-solving techniques at a complex level.

GEOMETRY INVESTIGATIONS 1, 2 HONORS
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 10
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: Algebra 1, 2,
This honors course included in our available honors & AP classes introduces and reinforces to students the process of logical reasoning through the use of inductive and deductive reasoning in geometry. Included in the curriculum is enhanced transformational and coordinate geometry as well as geometric vocabulary and theorems, measurement, angles, lines, planes, polygons, circles, probability and statistics, proportional reasoning, and right triangle trigonometry. It will provide students with the concepts involving geometric figures and emphasize the numeral relationships among them.

SCIENCE AP & HONORS CLASSES

AP BIOLOGY
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 12 
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: Teacher Approval, Senior Status
(Science)
AP Biology is an introductory college-level biology Advanced Placement course. Students cultivate their understanding of biology through inquiry-based investigations as they explore the following topics: evolution, cellular processes — energy and communication, genetics, information transfer, ecology, and interactions.

AP PHYSICS
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 12
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: Algebra 3, 4 completed or concurrent; Phys Science/Earth/Space 1, 2, Biology 1, 2 and Chemistry 1, 2 or Teacher Approval
(Science)
Physics is the study of motions, forces, energy, light, sound, electricity, and magnetism. In this Advanced Placement course, students will be expected to demonstrate a command of science process skills. They will solve problems by observing demonstrations, conducting experiments, and applying math procedures and skills. Physics has applications in many fields including athletics, engineering and technology, liberal arts, medicine, and health.

CHEMISTRY 1, 2 HONORS
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 11, 12
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: Phys Science/Earth/Space 1, 2 and Biology 1, 2 and Algebra 3,4 completed or concurrent.
(Science requirement or Elective)
Embedded in the same Chemistry classes, this extension opportunity allows for a deeper study of matter and energy. Students will explore Chemistry from a historical perspective, work with more intricate molecular designs, and have additional lab time, as well as apply math to this subject at a more rigorous level.

PHYS SCIENCE/EARTH/SPACE 1, 2 HONORS
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 9
Credit per Semester: 5.0 Prerequisite: None
(Science requirement or Elective)
This course is designed to provide students with a demanding foundation for the basic concepts of physical science including heat, light and sound, Newton’s laws, the periodic table, physical and chemical properties, chemical bonding and reactions, atomic structure, and conservations of mass and energy. In the areas of earth and space sciences, students will explore the concepts of geology meteorology, astronomy space science, and oceanography.

SOCIAL STUDIES AP & HONORS CLASSES

MODERN HISTORY HONORS
Course Length: 2 Semesters Grade: 11
Credit per Semester: 5.0
Students will go deeper into the main themes, ideas, conflicts, and events in Modern history. Students will practice and develop historical thinking skills, document analysis abilities, and research and writing skills. Students will be challenged to determine and evaluate the significance of events, follow chronology, and analyze the cause and effects of major historical events in the context of Modern history.

WORLD HISTORY HONORS
Course Length 2 Semesters Grades: 9
Credits per Semester: 5.0
This survey course will go deeper into the major developments in the history and the heritage of the world’s civilizations beginning with Ancient Sumer and continuing to the 21st Century, to draw connections to modern society and see how the broader spectrum of historical context shaped those historical moments. There will be additional work above and beyond the on-level version of the course.