With AP Seminar set, Honors English Discussion Continues

An AP Seminar class is set to be offered next school year at Culver City High School (CCHS), but potential changes to the English curriculum will be more gradual than parents advocating for the return of Honors had hoped.

The decision of whether or not an Honors course for English should be re-established in 9th and 10th Grades has been amongst the most contentious subjects at recent CCUSD Board of Education meetings, most recently being discussed at the Tuesday, May 27 regular meeting. However, District staff cited several factors that led to the decision to hold off on adding to the English curriculum until at least the 2026-27 school year.

Instead of implementing a traditional Honors English option for the 2025-26 school year, CCHS will offer AP Seminar as an elective to 10th and 11th-grade students looking for deeper engagement in their studies of the written word. This year-long course is part of a larger Advanced Placement Capstone Program that includes a second, year-long AP course: AP Research.

"This is a first step [in the path towards] adding and developing a more defined course of study for English 10 across the entire high school system," CCUSD Superintendent Brian Lucas said of these classes at the May 27 meeting.

These classes are based on self-driven research. Students complete a research project on a topic of their choice with guidance from the instructor, learning to "investigate a problem or issue, analyze arguments, compare different perspectives, synthesize information from multiple sources, and work alone and in a group to communicate their ideas," according to the College Board's description of the AP Seminar course.

To the dissatisfaction of several board members, AP Seminar is being treated as an elective class rather than an English class in the school's curriculum. Board Member Lindsay Carlson believed this should be an English class, arguing that taking it shouldn't take away an elective slot for students.

"[Many] students only have six periods during their day," Carlson said.

To be certified to teach the class, teachers must attend an AP Summer Institute, which requires a 30-hour commitment over four days. Many of these Summer Institutes are in-person only, with the options for Culver City teachers that do not require out-of-state travel being:

• June 2-5: Virtual
• June 16-19: Virtual
• July 14-17: University of California, Riverside
• July 21-24: Virtual
• July 28-31: 5 Virtual Options (1 on PST)
• August 11-14: 2 Virtual Options (0 on PST)

To offer the class as an English class, educators would need to be certified as an English teacher and complete the Summer Institute to qualify to teach it. By listing it as an elective, teachers certified in Humanities and other subjects could be in the pool of available teachers as long as they complete the summer program.

While it could be an English class in the future, the District wants to establish a Course of Study — a blueprint of a student's potential path through their academic career — that integrates AP Seminar and the AP Research class that comprise the AP Capstone Program before considering that change.

"We're not recommending a change," Lucas said, "because that maintains College Prep 10 as the English Course of Study for 10th Graders."

AP Research — traditionally offered to students in the year immediately following AP Seminar — is expected to be implemented in the 2026-27 school year, with the Capstone program fully integrated entering the 2027-28 school year.

One of the original metrics of success for the College Prep classes that replaced Honors English was how effectively they brought students to and prepared them for AP English Language, CCHS's current 11th-grade AP offering. Board Members expressed the importance of establishing similar measurable goals for the AP Capstone Program.

"I think what I'm hearing from us all," Board Vice President Stephanie Loredo said, "is that we would like moving forward to have S.M.A.R.T. goals."

Along with the two classes intrinsic to the program, students who take at least four additional AP Classes and earn at least a "3" on their respective exams will earn an AP Capstone Degree once the program is fully integrated into the CCHS curriculum. The award is acknowledged on any AP score report sent to colleges.

Despite this notification, Board President Triston Ezidore expressed concern with how applicable these programs were to students' college pursuits. While colleges consider Advanced Placement more rigorous than Honors classes — reflected by the full-point weighted GPA boost many colleges give to AP classes compared to a half-point increase given to Honors classes — he had doubts about its tangible benefits to many college applications.

The entire Cal State system gives college credit for AP Seminar. However, it is accepted by just 65 of California's approximately 745 higher education institutions, which includes trade schools and community colleges. This list only contains one UC school — UC Santa Cruz — but also features prominent institutions like USC, San Jose State, San Diego State, and Occidental.

"I get this is eligible for students who are going to Cal States," Ezidore said, "[but] I'm talking about...increasing access to college and career readiness for all students and learners in this District."

This decision also means there are no immediate plans to add options to the ninth-grade course of study. The College Prep English classes, which replaced the separated honors and non-honors classes, will remain the baseline option for students in 9th and 10th grade.

"For [the] 2026-27 school year, [the] Administration recommends to consider implementing additional advanced options in English," the staff report on the item reads.

For more information on AP Seminar, visit the AP website here.