Qualifying and Forecasting for
Honors and Advanced Placement History Classes 2014-2015
Honors and Advanced Placement level classes are offered to provide students who have an interest and desire an
opportunity to undertake a challenging Social Science curriculum. The successful honors history student must be willing to
commit to a greater demand on her time. Courses require students to work independently, read and comprehend at
advanced levels, analyze and think critically, work with primary sources, and write clear and effective essays and papers.
Criteria for Acceptance into Honors World History 10
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Must earn and maintain at least an A- in both freshman English and Religion
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Must have an English teacher’s recommendation
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Must successfully complete a Social Science Honors/AP Application Form
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Must score in the “qualified” to “extremely qualified” range of categories in the overall history acceptance rubric
Criteria for Acceptance into Advanced Placement U.S. History 11, AP United States Government & Politics, and Honors
Modern European History/PSU Challenge Hst 12
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Must earn and maintain minimum B average in current history class
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Must have recommendation of current history teacher
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Must successfully complete a Social Science Honors/AP Application Form
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Must score in the “qualified” to “extremely qualified” range of categories in the overall history acceptance rubric
When do I write the required essay and how are they used to decide acceptance?
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Application forms and essay response will be offered in January and must be handed in by the posted deadline
(Wednesday Feb 5).
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The Social Studies Department will evaluate application forms as a team.
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Based on the criteria students will be confidentially ranked for acceptance into the appropriate honors or AP
classes.
Honors/AP History Forecasting Dates:
January 30,31 & Feb 3 –Lunch meetings in 205 to obtain application information and forms
February 5-7
--Completed application forms due to Mr. Vannelli in Room 206 by 3:15 PM
What other important information do I need to know to be considered for an Honors or AP class?
 Completed Application Forms must be turned in to Mr. Vannelli in Room 214 (Frosh hall across from 208).
 Students do not need to ask their teachers for recommendations, those requests will be handled confidentially
by the Social Science Department once the essays have been completed.
 The scoring rubric on the backside of this sheet shows you the specific skills an honors or AP student needs to
have in order to be successful.
Scoring Criteria for Application Form extended response:
Content: Student response offers accurate, comprehensive and complete analysis of the information and issues. It provides
a variety of facts to explore major and minor issues and extensively uses previous historical knowledge to provide in-depth
understanding of the problem and to relate it to past the possible future situations.
Focus: Student response establishes a central idea clearly and effectively in the opening paragraph and maintains this focus
throughout the essay. Each paragraph is logically linked to the main idea and all sentences within the paragraph serve to
further develop and maintain this focus.
Conventions: Student Response is written in grammatically correct English; it has no major spelling or grammatical errors; it
shows a sound understanding of the structure of a good sentence and paragraph.
Organization: Ideas presented follow and relate to each other in a logical and effective way. Information is organized within
the sentence and paragraph as well as the paper itself for maximum effectiveness. Ideas and topics are balanced. Basic
components of good writing are present – topic sentences, supporting paragraphs, and sound reasoning.
Development: Student response uses specific, accurate, relevant and concrete examples from the prompt (in the form of
quotes) as well as outside historical information to illustrate, support and develop the ideas presented in the response.
Insight: The degree to which the response demonstrates insight into the theme/topic will be noted. Student response
explores the subject in all its complexity and reveals and examines the nature of that complexity. Such insights are not
implied but revealed and developed through proper use of examples either from the prompt or outside knowledge.
Benchmark: The quality of this work in relation to that expected of an Honors or AP student
Knowledge and Use of History:
Exceptional
 Offers accurate and relevant analysis of information and issue
 Provides a variety of facts to explore major and minor issues and concepts involved
 Extensively uses previous historical knowledge to provide an in-depth understanding of the problem and relate it to
past and possible future situations
Superior
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Offers accurate and relevant analysis of document (text, quote, etc.)
Provides facts to relate to the major issues involved
Uses previous general historical knowledge to examine issues involved
Commendable
 Relates only major facts to the basic issues with a fair degree of accuracy and relevance
 Analyzes information to explain at least one major issue or concept with substantive support
 Uses general ideas from previous historical knowledge with a fair degree of accuracy
Rudimentary
 Provides only basic facts with only some degree of accuracy and relevance
 Refers to information to explain at least one issue or concept in general terms
 Limited use of previous historical knowledge without complete accuracy
 Major reliance on information provided
Minimal
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Reiterates one or two facts without complete accuracy or relevance
Deals only briefly and vaguely with concepts or the issues
Barely indicates any previous historical knowledge
Relies heavily on the information provided.