Hinsdale South and Central High Schools’ social studies department revealed plans for a realigned curriculum across both school campuses during Thursday’s board of education meeting.
According to Hinsdale High District 86’s social studies department, during the 2021 school year, the south and central campuses taught seven unique courses not offered by the other. Just over half the 29 course options were taught at both schools, but according to the department that does not mean the same lessons were being taught between campuses.
“It’s important to note that [the same course title] does not indicate they share a curriculum, our curriculum at the two schools have been vastly different in many of our courses,” Kathy Lencioni, District 86 Social Studies Department Chair, said during the March 23 presentation.
The goal of the realignment is to create a “single program of studies,” which, according to the department, will necessitate cutting certain classes to make the existing programs sustainable for teachers.
Changes to course offerings will take place during the 2023-24 school year, with complete alignment scheduled to take place at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year.
Over the next four years six new courses will be introduced, including Chicago History, World Cultures Honors and AP Modern World History.
The announcement of AP Modern World History, which will be introduced in 2024-25, took center stage as it will take the place of AP European History for sophomore students taking the honors and AP history course pathway.
The two courses are meant to teach very similar skills for students, but the Modern World History class represents a broader subject matter, according to Paul Faeh, who has been an AP European History and AP US history teacher for more than 25 years and is a consultant for College Board, the nonprofit organization which oversees AP testing nationwide.
The thinking skills, reasoning process and formatting of the courses are the same, Faeh said. “I was there in the room when they developed those rubrics.”
According to the board’s presentation, AP European History will still be offered, but the class will become an elective for juniors and seniors.
“One of the things that our goals revolve around is to educate global citizens, we want kids to love social studies … we want them to be good citizens, we want them to be curious lifelong learners and we want them to understand each other, the community they live in and the world that we live in,” Sanskruti Patel, Hinsdale Central’s AP US History and Global Issues teacher, said during the presentation.