New course offerings are coming to Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools next school year. Students will now be able to get a full credit instead of a half-credit for the African American studies and Latin American studies elective courses in social studies. American Indian studies will now join the list as history electives offered.

 “The goal is to offer that at every single high school, regardless of how many kids sign up for it,” said instructional superintendent Lionel Kato. 

Reagan history teachers Scott Mcabee and Anna Kirby have joined the county team in developing the curriculum for these courses.

“My hope is that is will expand student interest,”  said department head and history teacher Scott Mcabee. “The courses are a great celebration of diversity and there are numerous stories to tell in history. While these stories have not been neglected in the classroom, this is a chance for the stories to be showcased,” said Mcabee.

The goal of this expansion is to give students an opportunity to learn more in-depth about a specific race and their culture. In addition to the expansion, the school board has pushed for more advanced courses available at schools. 

“We really want to expand the opportunity for students to be able to take those regardless of what school they are in,” Kato said. “That’s something that was pretty big that came out of the curriculum committee.” He also stated, “That expansion of AP opportunities at some of our smaller schools will be particularly impactful for students who… might not have wanted to go to the Career Center before so they just missed out on AP courses. Now, they can take it at their home school. At least, that’s the plan.”

 The new AP offerings will include AP Biology, AP United States Government and Politics at Reynolds High School. Those are just a few of the schools and offerings that the school board has released.

Alongside this expansion starting next school year, a change required at the state level for students will affect the Class of 2024 and high school students after that class N.C. House Bill 924 was passed by N.C. General Assembly and signed into law in July requiring all high school students to take on economics and personal finance course to get their diplomas. 

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools will offer the course through career and technical education as well as social studies. career and technical education include computer science principles I and II; cybersecurity essentials at Carver IT Academy; business management II; culinary arts and hospitality I at the Career Center and Kennedy; and culinary arts and hospitality IV — internship at Kennedy.

Other new courses include Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science (honors and standard levels) and North Carolina Math 4 (honors and standard levels); Social Injustice: The Holocaust and Modern Day Genocide, which was tested as a pilot program at Mount Tabor last school year; and Digital Drawing & Illustration at the Career Center.

 “It’s exciting for the kids to be able to have all these new and increased opportunities,” Kato said.“I hope everybody can take advantage of them. Kato believes this new expansion will overall help students become more aware of different cultures and so much more.