During the Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE) meeting Thursday, members are expected to approve multiple new pilot courses as well as designate three pilot financial courses as active courses.
Pilot courses are noncore elections classes that don’t require new staffing. Generally a pilot course is developed the first year and implemented for the next two school years. At that time, BOE members vote to make it an active course or have it continue as a pilot course.
BOE members approved financial literacy classes and opted to offer Personal Finance and Personal Financial Mathematics at all high schools. During the current school year, 2,370 students are enrolled in Personal Finance. Enrollment in Personal Financial Math A is 3,380 and Personal Financial Math B is 3,653.
If the BOE members opt to approve the superintendent’s recommendation, those classes will move from pilot to active.
Hip-Hop Poetics and Rhetoric; Exploring the Golden Age of Hip Hop is proposed to be offered as a pilot class at Montgomery Blair High School. It would be an honors class offered for one semester to students in the 11th and 12th grades.
Jewish Peoplehood Throughout History, which is proposed at Montgomery Blair High School, will continue for a second year in the pilot course development process for students in 10th through 12th grade. It is a one semester course.
Also recommended to remain as a pilot program is Social Justice Through Public Policy, which was proposed at Walt Whitman High School and would be taken after a student completes Introduction to Social Justice. The class is for 9th through 12th graders and is a one semester class.
The following classes have completed the pilot program process and are recommended for final approval for the next school year.
- Color Guard at James Hubert Black and Northwood high schools
- Ethnic Studies at Poolesville High School
- Global Climate Change at Northwood and Walter Johnson high schools
- Holocaust Studies at Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School
- Mindfulness for Teens at Thomas Wootton High School
- Muslim Global Experiences at Col. Zadok Magruder High School
- Principles of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality Design at Northwood High School
- Literature in the Humanities for 7th and 8th graders at Eastern Middle School
- Science of Sports and Recreational Activities at Kingsview Middle School
- Technical Theatre for Middle School at A. Mario Loiederman Middle School
