Indian Prairie 204 presents high‑school course updates; recommends honors weight for Anatomy & Physiology dual‑credit

District curriculum staff presented proposed revisions to several high‑school courses at the Indian Prairie CUSD 204 Board of Education meeting April 6, including English 9 (regular and honors) and Anatomy & Physiology (standard and dual‑credit). Staff said the dual‑credit Anatomy & Physiology course meets a level of rigor that warrants honors weighting and that materials and a formal resource‑adoption request will be brought back to the board at the May 4 meeting.

Nicole Howard told the board the district follows a multi‑year review and implementation cycle and uses a rubric to assess pacing, rigor and alignment with college content when deciding honors designation. "None of our dual credit are honors with the exception of dual credit calculus 3," Howard said, adding that the district recently developed a rubric to make honors determinations less subjective.

Howard outlined differences between the standard and dual‑credit Anatomy & Physiology courses: the standard course covers a narrower set of core systems at a scaled‑back pace, while the dual‑credit course covers more topics at an accelerated, college level and will be proposed for an honors weight to reflect that rigor. She said the district selected new Pearson texts for Anatomy & Physiology and plans to make class sets and digital licenses available for public review at the district’s CEC before the May 4 adoption vote.

Board members asked whether the changes would affect enrollment; Howard said the separation of standard and dual‑credit sections is intended to increase accessibility and could increase overall enrollment in the pathway. She also explained that the dual‑credit course is taught in partnership with College of DuPage and that experienced teachers who helped write the revised course will continue to teach it.

District staff said they will return to the board on May 4 with a formal request to adopt course revisions and resource selections. The presentation referenced Board policy 640 (curriculum development) and the district’s resource‑adoption procedures.