Honors Algebra II, Trigonometry with Limits is a higher-level math course offered at Wadsworth High School as of the 2021-2022 school year.
“This is the third year we have had the trig with limits class,” said Allison Parsons, the teacher of this course. She took over teaching this class at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year.
The class’s premise is to give students the opportunity to take Algebra II and Pre-calc in one school year, allowing time to take AP Calculus the following year.
“It combines Honors Algebra II and Honors Precalculus together,” Parsons said. “There is a lot of overlap between Honors Algebra II and Precalculus and basically this class eliminates all the review you would do at the beginning of Honors Pre-calculus.”
While this accelerated class is technically two years of math in one, it still is only worth one math credit toward the four required to graduate.
“Although Honors Algebra II/Trig with Limits is often described as ‘two classes in one’ to explain the rigor and pace of the course, it is still just a 1.0 credit class because it does not cover enough content to award 2.0 credits,” said Carly DiPaolo, one of the guidance counselors at Wadsworth High School.
The lack of sufficient content makes it difficult to change the class to be worth more credits. However, classes offered at Wadsworth, such as College Credit Plus Composition One and Two are offered as one credit each, even though each class respectively is only one semester.
“Algebra II is not a college-level class, so I don’t think we could offer anything in terms of CCP because Algebra II is a high school-level class, and so is Pre-calculus,” Parsons said. “It is an interesting idea, but you would not be able to get college credit.”
Although this is only the third year the class has been offered at Wadsworth, it already has experienced a steady decline in the amount of kids who are enrolled in the course. When the class began during the 2021-22 school year, there were a total of 54 students enrolled. As of this year, the number has decreased significantly to 34 kids.
A lot of kids are opting out of the course after hearing about the difficult nature of the class along with the extremely fast pace. Lukas Porter, a junior at Wadsworth High, shared why he decided against taking the class, even though he was recommended for it.
“I didn’t take it because my sister took it before me and said it moved super fast, was hard, stressful, and took up most of her evenings,” Porter said.
Of the students who did enroll in the class, many also shared their apprehensions about taking it, due to it being labeled as an extremely challenging course.
“I talked to my parents about it a lot and decided that I would take the class despite being super worried about how hard it would be,” said Mia Vignali, a junior enrolled in Trig with Limits as of the 2023-2024 school year.
Overall, due to the steady decline in students who take this class, getting students more involved is necessary to keep the course thriving at Wadsworth High. Creating a way for Trig with Limits to be worth two credits would make the class more appealing to those who are not sure whether or not they should continue on this accelerated path.
“Two credits would make it seem more rewarding for such a tough class, and I probably would have taken it,” Porter said.
Though it would take some changes to add an additional credit to this class, it would definitely persuade more students to enroll.
