High School Curriculum Overview
Upon completion of their 8th
grade year, all Buncombe County Schools students develop a four-year
educational plan to fulfill the requirements for graduation from high
school. Each student must select one of the following courses of study
to follow:
- Career Prep
- College Tech Prep
- College/University Prep
- Occupational
In addition, it is highly encouraged that students select one of the following career pathways:
- Agriculture and Natural Resources Technology
- Biological and Chemical Technologies
- Business Technologies
- Commercial and Artistic Production Technologies
- Construction Technologies
- Engineering Technologies
- Health Sciences
- Industrial Technologies
- Public Service Technologies
- Transportation Systems Technologies
This high school curriculum is offered through a variety of instructional settings:
- Comprehensive high schools in each district
- Career Education Center
- Virtual High School courses
- Community High School
- Distance Learning
- Twilight School
- Huskins courses
- Buncombe County Early College
English/Language Arts
In
High School English Language Arts classes students continue to develop
language use in different contexts and for different audiences and
purposes. They engage in the formal study of literature, write more
complex compositions, engage in research, and develop skill in
evaluating professional authors' as well as their own language use. They
develop sophisticated media productions to showcase their learning.
During
grades 9-12, students are guided through a sequence of studies that
move from emphasizing relatively familiar, concrete experience to
focusing on more general and abstract ideas. The curriculum seeks to
give all students at all levels as full an experience as possible with
the most rewarding uses of language.
Writing
Writing has
become a valuable tool in the high school classroom for engaging
students in thinking, showing understanding, creating, communicating,
and learning. When we blend two purposes for writing, writing to
demonstrate learning with writing to help facilitate learning, we open
the content area classroom to the many ways diverse writing can benefit
both students and teachers. Throughout the high school years, writing is
integrated in all classrooms, as well as focused on in English classes.
At the end of 10th grade, students participate in the North Carolina
Writing Assessment, responding to a prompt which requires an extended
informational response.
Math
The basic high
school mathematics program includes courses from Introductory
Mathematics through Advanced Placement Calculus. Additional elective
courses are intended to offer opportunities that address the needs of
individual schools.
The North Carolina Standard Course of Study for high school mathematics includes the following courses:
- Introductory Mathematics
- Technical Math 1
- Technical Math 2
- Algebra I
- Geometry
- Algebra 2
- Integrated Mathematics 1, 2, and 3
There are seven advanced mathematics courses in the North Carolina Standard Course of
Study:
- Advanced Functions and Modeling
- Discrete Mathematics
- Precalculus
- Integrated Mathematics 4
- Advanced Placement Statistics
- Advanced Placement Calculus (AB and BC)
- International Baccalaureate Mathematics (an alternative to Advanced Placement)
Science
The
goal of the high school science program is for students to achieve
scientific literacy, defined as ?the knowledge and understanding of
scientific concepts and processes required for scientific decision
making, participation in civic and cultural affairs and economic
productivity.
By the end of 12th grade, all students should have
learned the following concepts, theories, and universal laws as required
by the N.C. Standard Course of Study:
- The Cell
- Molecular basis of heredity
- Biological evolution of organisms
- Interdependence
- Energy in earth systems
- Geological cycles
- Structure of atoms
- Structure of the properties of matter
- Chemical Reactions
- Motion and forces
- Origin and evolution of the earth system
- Origin and evolution of the universe
- Conservation of energy and increase in disorder
- Interaction of energy and matter
Computer/Technology Skills
The
strength of technology is that it provides an excellent platform where
students can collect information in multiple formats and then organize,
link, and discover relationships between facts and events. An array of
tools for acquiring information and for thinking and expression allows
more students more ways to enter the learning enterprise successfully
and to live productive lives in the global, digital, and
information-based future they all face.
Prior to the completion of grade 12, students will:
- Identify
capabilities and limitations of contemporary and emerging technology
resources and assess the potential of these systems and services to
address personal, lifelong learning, and workplace needs.
- Make informed choices among technology systems, resources, and services.
- Analyze advantages and disadvantages of widespread use and reliance on technology in the workplace and in society as a whole.
- Demonstrate
and advocate for legal and ethical behaviors among peers, family, and
community regarding the use of technology and information.
- Use
technology tools and resources for managing and communicating
personal/professional information (e.g., finances, schedules, addresses,
purchases, correspondence).
- Evaluate technology-based options, including distance and distributed education, for lifelong learning.
- Routinely
and efficiently use online information resources to meet needs for
collaboration, research, publications, communications, and productivity.
- Select and apply technology tools for research, information analysis, problem-solving, and decision-making in content learning.
- Investigate and apply expert systems, intelligent agents, and simulations in real-world situations.
- Collaborate
with peers, experts, and others to contribute to a content-related
knowledge base by using technology to compile, synthesize, produce, and
disseminate information, models, and other creative works.
Social Studies
The
North Carolina Social Studies curriculum is designed to ensure that our
state prepares students to become productive citizens. This implies an
understanding of history, geography and the social sciences, social
studies skills, and the processes needed for personal decision-making,
participation in civic affairs, and economic productivity.
Expectations
of the state of North Carolina testing program and the semester
schedule result in a tightly structured high school social studies
program. Students study World History in the ninth grade, Civics and
Economics in the tenth grade and United States History in the eleventh
grade. A variety of electives are available in the twelfth grade.
Electives
Buncombe
County High Schools offer a wide range of electives to our students,
including cultural arts, career and technical education, foreign
languages, health and physical education and ROTC. These electives allow
students to explore a variety of educational opportunities and enrich
their overall education.