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Overview
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The Academic and Performing Arts Complex (APAC) is open to students who are strong academic achievers and who show an aptitude for one or more of the visual or performing arts. There is an application process held during the fall and winter of each year for entrance into these programs of study for the following school year.
Academics Division
The academic division is a challenging program of study in language arts, math, science, and social studies that accelerates students in order to prepare them for college coursework (Advanced Placement) in their final years of high school.
APAC academic courses are offered for grades 9 through 12 at Forest Hill high schools. Transportation is provided to all students admitted to the program.
Eligibility Criteria
- Student must have a score of high Proficient and/or Advanced on state assessments
- Student must have an 80 end-of-term grade average in at least four core content areas to be considered for the high school program.
- Student must have a passing score on student response exam(s) to be administered in the winter or spring of each year (December – March). All students applying for program placement are required to complete an assessment to be scored by the district’s program assessment review committee.
For entry into an AP® course, a student must:
- Provide a letter of commitment signed by the student and his/her parents;
- Have a high degree of commitment to academic work demonstrated in previous courses; and
- Have passed the prerequisite/recommended core course(s) as well as passed the state’s Subject Area Test(s). Exception: AP® U.S. History is not offered until grade 11.
ÃÙȦ×ÊÔ´Õ¾ strongly recommends that in addition to the above-mentioned requirements, students should have:
- Demonstrated a history of achievement within the content area for which they plan to take an AP® course by passing the recommended core course(s) with grade(s) no lower than a 90 in regular courses, as well as passing the state’s Subject Area Test(s), scoring proficient or advanced for those core course(s).
- Performed well on the PSAT/NMSQT® exam, administered during grade 10.
To remain in an AP® course, students must meet the following minimum requirements:
- Maintain at least a “C” for each nine weeks term.
- Once a student, parent, and teacher recognize that the level of difficulty of the AP® course(s) is such that the student may not be successful, a course change should occur immediately. Please see the school counselor for the AP Schedule Change Guidelines.
- Continuously demonstrate a high degree of ongoing commitment to rigorous, academic coursework.
Performing Arts Division
For Your Information
Resource Library
Summer Reading
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ALL Advance Placement or Honors English scholars will be given literature list upon registration acceptance into course. If no additional literature list is provided. refer to District list below
9 (AP)
I am Malala
Malala Yousafzai
9 (AP)
Long Way Down
Jason Reynolds
9 (AP)
The Moon is Down
John Steinbeck
9 (IB)
Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson
9 (IB)
Long Way Down
Jason Reynolds
10 (AP)
Gathering of Old Men
Ernest Gaines
10 (AP)
The Poet X
Elizabeth Acevedo
10 (AP)
Persepolis, Book 1
Marjane Satrapi
10 (IB)
Kindred
Octavia Butler
11 (AP)
1984
George Orwell
11 (AP) Nonfiction Choice
11 (AP)
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair
11 (AP)
Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser
11 (AP)
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander
11 (AP)
The Beauty Myth
Naomi Wolf
11 (AP)
In Cold Blood
Truman Capote
11 (AP) Memoir Choice
11 (AP)
Becoming
Michelle Obama
11 (AP)
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
11 (AP)
Born A Crime
Trevor Noah
11 (AP)
Long Way Gone
Charles Martin
11 (AP)
Memorial Drive
Natasha Trethewey
11 (IB)
Required
11 (IB)
How To Read Literature Like a Professor
Thomas C. Foster
11 (IB)
Siddhartha
Herman Hesse
12 (AP)
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver
12 (AP)
World of Wonders
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
12 (AP) AP Classic Novel Choice
12 (AP)
Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
12 (AP)
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin
12 (AP)
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
12 (AP)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
12 (AP)
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
12 (AP)
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
12 (IB) Required
12 (IB)
King Lear
William Shakespeare
12(IB)
Woman at Point Zero
Nawal El Saadawi
Note: Program schools may recommend that additional books are read during the summer in preparation for coursework during the upcoming school year. Those listed above are the minimum books required by the District for each grade level and program school.