Naperville School District 203 proposed six new high school courses to be implemented over the next two school years.
The proposal was brought to the District 203 Board of Education by learning services administrators at Monday night’s board meeting.
Courses provide more chances for college credit
With the addition of two Advanced Placement courses and one dual credit course, students will have more opportunities to earn college credit in high school.
AP Computer Science Principles and AP Networking would be implemented in the 2027-28 school year. These will replace the current courses Computer Programming 1 and 2, and Information Technology Systems 1 and 2.
Then, with the addition of French 5, the district will offer 40 dual credit classes through College of DuPage in the 2026-27 school year.
For AP classes, students can take an AP exam at the end of the year for college credit. Exams are scored out of 5, and in Illinois, a score above 3 is transferable for college credit. Schools outside of Illinois vary on what scores they will accept. Exams are not required to complete the course, but there is a fee to take them.
In District 203, dual credit courses are created in partnership with College of DuPage. Students earn high school and college credit simultaneously, and credit is transferable to any institution.
Jayne Willard, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said the administrators prioritize classes that prepare students for college and career.
“It really is looking at courses that are aligned to careers in college, and really hoping that our students get to college with an idea of what they want to do to have a better return on their investment and have a more streamlined transition into their post-secondary experience,” Willard said.
Future students could graduate with associate degrees through dual credit
As more dual credit courses are added, administration is hopeful that students will eventually be able to graduate with an associate degree along with their high school diploma.
The district is already offering COD classes English 1101 and 1102 next year to work toward this goal.
“We’re still a couple years away, but I do feel like we are making good progress, because our students can transfer their AP courses over to College of DuPage as well,” said Andrea Szczpanski, lead principal of educational innovation and workforce development. “So between what they take in AP and what they can get in dual credit between our [Career and Technical Education] courses and English courses, it gets them very close.”
Additional college credit courses being considered
Curriculum administrators are already looking for more courses to add in future years.
They hope to partner with COD for speech, film 2, PE strength and conditioning, and autos 2 and 3.
Other AP courses being considered include cybersecurity, and business and personal finance.
Other classes continue learning and development
In addition to college credit courses, three other classes were proposed to prepare students for careers after graduation.
Exploring AI is designed in response to the growing use of AI technology. The class will cover prompt and context engineering, data literacy and classification, introduction to model training, privacy and security, and ethics. Administrators expect the course to change over the years to adapt to new AI technology.
“We had a long conversation with our team on, how are we going to keep up with the trends and changes within AI, to have a course that is just right, just in time for our kids, that mirrors what is happening in the world of AI?” Willard said. “And so that was something that we really discussed a lot as we were thinking about bringing this course in, knowing that we have a responsibility to educate our students around AI, but also know that it changes so frequently.”
The addition of advanced acting will follow acting 1 and 2 courses and cover the acting 3 and 4 curricula.
Culinary 2 (baking and pastry) will replace the current culinary 2 class. The district has been reworking its culinary and hospitality career pathway, and the new culinary 2 course aligns with the same class offered by COD.
“We’re just excited to be able to expand our pathways and our offerings to our students, and we just want to ensure that everything is very relevant to what’s happening out in the business world,” Szczpanski said.
If you have a story idea, send us a tip!
