Course Placement and Acceleration

Course placement and curriculum progression is carefully planned and supported by student achievement data. In the following sections of the course catalog you will find information from each department about their coursework and what class is suggested after completing certain classes. Grade performance in all courses is important. Many courses taken in grades 9 and 10 introduce foundational information for courses taken in grade 11 and 12. As such, Tahoma High School uses the following guidelines in recommending placement and discussing the pros and cons of acceleration with students.

Course Catalog Information

In the pages that follow we outline the full list of options, by department, for students to select from. Each entry will include important information for students and families to review while making choices. Entries will include the course code and course name. It will explain the length of the course (semester or yearlong), and the grade level of students that can take the course. The credit type and credit potential will be shown. This is connected to the subject area high school graduation requirements and the amount of credit awarded if a student passes the course. If there is a prerequisite listed that means there is a course or a skill students need to have before being eligible to take the course you are reading about. It also includes an estimated number of hours of homework per week. This is if students use their class time appropriately. Off-task behavior in class can increase the hours of homework a student faces outside of class. If there is a class fee associated with the course you will see that listed, along with any links to videos of supporting documentation our teachers want students to have when they are considering taking a class. Instructors also submit detailed descriptions of each course, which are reviewed and updated annually. The course catalog entries are an excellent source of information related to all aspects of a class and should be referred to first with any questions about class information.

Classes can also be tagged with the following codes to indicate special characteristics of the course. These special considerations are explained in detail in this first portion of our course guide.

Indicators // Class Tag:

AP // Advanced Placement

CADR // College Academic Distribution Requirement

C in HS // College in the High School

CTE - DC // CTE Dual Credit 

NCAA // NCAA Approved Core Credit

College Academic Distribution Requirements (CADRs)

If post high school plans include applying to enroll directly at a four year college or university students will want to review application requirements for each school. These are not universal and vary school to school. The College Academic Distribution Requirements (CADRs) are the minimum number of high school credits required in six subject areas by Washington’s public 4-year colleges and universities (https://wapublicuniversities.org/). 

The six subject areas addressed by CADR are: English, Math, Science, Social Sciences, Fine Art, and World Language. Students planning to apply for direct admission to a 4-year college or university should enroll in classes each year that have the CADR acronyms listed as part of the course description in this guide. Details on the CADR requirements can be found at the website above and in this bulletin from the Washington Student Achievement Council: https://wsac.wa.gov/sites/default/files/Minimum.College.Admission.Standards.Policy.pdf 

Tahoma High School courses that are CADRs will be designated as such in the course catalog each year, both the printed and online versions. 

Course Placement

Each course description will include important information for students and families to consider before selecting it as a schedule request. Placement will be determined in many cases by grade level and prerequisite completion. There are several checks along the way to be certain students are placed accurately according to course information and staff recommendation. This is why there may be slight differences between courses requested during the course request timeframe and courses that are scheduled for the following school year. Several different school staff will review requests for a variety of factors to be sure placement is in the best interest of the student and of the student’s post high school plan.

Acceleration

Some students have a desire to accelerate their course pathways beyond what we can offer at Tahoma High School. We highly discourage students from attempting a full year course in a six-eight week timeline over a summer break, as an example. Many concepts are rushed or skipped altogether in these scenarios which may make it difficult for a student to be successful in the next course. Where we see the deepest impact of this ‘rush’ is in the area of math which is so essential to understand fundamental concepts before moving on to the next level. Students are rarely as successful as they would like to be in the next level class when the prerequisite course was a summer course completed on a shorter timeline than an academic semester or year schedule allows. 

If you choose to take a course outside of Tahoma High School you will want to be certain that it can be transferred to us for credit. Without the transcript from an accredited institution, the pre-requisite course is not considered met and your student will be placed accordingly. Transcript information must be received prior to Bear Days starting in order for the student’s schedule to be corrected to the new course. Please note that we do not accept Homeschool curriculum for credit.