What is a US History Honors Class? 

What is Honors U.S. History? Well, it's basically a regular U.S. History class with higher level writing expectations. It's not nearly as difficult as APUSH (The College Board's Advanced Placement U.S. History  class), but is more challenging than a regular education class. How is Honors less challenging than an APUSH class? Firstly, APUSH covers a lot more history than honors. APUSH starts in 1491, and honors starts in 1877, just like the regular classes. Secondly, honors includes all the TEKS required for the STAAR test, and an APUSH class is not aligned with the STAAR test, thus APUSH students in the past were required to cover a lot more material during a school year. When APUSH is offered in the 2022-2023 school year, APUSH will be somewhat less demanding on the junior students. After the 2021-2022 school year, Orangefield High School juniors will have already completed the STAAR test and it will be easier to cover the APUSH material without the added pressures of covering all of the TEKS for a STAAR test. How is an honors class more challenging than a regular class? The main reason is that students will be introduced to the writing skills needed for success on a College Board test. The writing required to pass an honors class is not as extensive as an APUSH class, but will have a bigger impact to a grade than in a regular class. Orangefield High School is not offering APUSH during the 2021-2022 school year, but it will be offered again in 2022-2023. Honors will help prepare students for the APUSH college level course, by introducing data based questions using historical thinking skills.  I have posted information below for juniors who plan to take APUSH in the future after completing the honors class in their sophomore year.