Clover Hill High School is home to the Math and Science school; consequently, the science curriculum is extremely relevant. However, lately some proposed changes to the course offerings for the 2026-2027 school year have raised questions of whether student success is more important in the classroom or on the reports.

As of now there are three levels of course difficulty listed in order of least to most difficult: comprehensive (c) level, honors, and advanced placement (AP.)

During the 2025-2026 school year, the Clover Hill High School science course offerings included Oceanography, Astronomy, Biology, Earth and Space, Chemistry, Anatomy, Physics, and Environmental Science, as well as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Environmental Science in the AP level.

According to a paper given to science teachers earlier this school year by the science department, next year’s science honors course offerings are limited to honors chemistry and honors biology, which is a large jump from the eight previously mentioned honors courses offered this year, and the even larger number of honors classes offered in previous years.

Within the last four years, ±30% of the student body has been enrolled in an honors science course. For reference, on average only roughly 20% of the student body has been in the Math Sci Program. 

This is likely due to the increasing complexity of the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) accreditation system.

VDOE has a system of accreditation which ranks school quality based on student achievement. Within this system, not only are grades looked at, but enrollment rates in advanced classes are heavily considered.

Administrator Renee Green explained how VDOE; and it’s rubric for school rankings, guides decisions within the school.

“The VDOE wants more students to take Honors, AP, DE, and CTE (Career and Technical Courses) before they graduate,” Green said.

Furthermore, Green elaborated on how this directly affects students at Clover Hill High School.

“Other ways this impacts science could be that we may offer less elective science classes like Oceanography in favor of classes like AP Biology or AP Environmental,” Green said.

Science department head Pamala Hughes explained that the process of removing a class from the course offerings only occurs when there is not a teacher to teach the class.

Green backed this up by explaining the role of counselors in encouraging more advanced enrollment.

“This would be driven by student course requests and then counselors having conversation with students about taking more rigorous classes like AP that better prepare them for college level work,” she said.

Although the motivations expressed behind this decision are within the students best interest, that may not be how the plan plays out.

The level of difficulty within c-level and AP classes is vastly different. The purpose of an honors class is to ease students into more rigorous courses. 

With the removal of the option to take steps into an AP class, more students may struggle with the large jump from c-level to AP. So, although the goal is to push honors students into taking AP courses, this may have the opposite effect and force more c-level students to remain in c-level classes.

This also hurts students’ Grade Point Averages (GPAs); honors classes come with a GPA boost, but C level classes do not come with a boost. Removing the option for a GPA boost is likely to force a lot of students into a lower GPA category, hurting college applications.

GPA isn’t the only part of college applications that could be hurt by the removal of honors courses. 

For a lot of students, the prospect of taking an AP class seems like too much. That does not mean these students belong in c-level classes, but to colleges it may not seem that way.

When applying to college, a student’s transcript and schedule is strongly considered. A series of honors enrollment generally looks more rigorous on an application than a series of c-level enrollments, especially for more competitive schools.

Even for students who do not plan on pursuing higher education, being forced into a class that is either too hard or too easy could cause burnout. 

This would also affect teachers as they often have to cater their lessons towards the level of difficulty in that particular class. However, if there are students that thrive more in a slightly harder class and students that thrive more in a slightly easier class, then teachers may struggle to accommodate both groups of students.

While these new changes are not official and course offerings may remain as they are, the consequences of a decision such as this must be heavily weighed by staff and students alike.