Social Science

World History, Cultures, and Geography - College Prep

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grade 10

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "A"

The focus of this course is modern history.  Major emphasis of study will be placed on the rise of democratic ideals in the western world, the Industrial Revolution, imperialism, World War I, the rise of totalitarianism, World War II, and the post-World War II world.  In these areas of study, students will analyze the causes, consequences, and their impact on today’s world.

Advanced Placement World History

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grade 10

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "A"

AP World History is designed to be the equivalent of a two-semester introductory college or university world history course. In AP World History students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes in six historical periods from approximately 8000 B.C.E. to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; making historical comparisons; utilizing reasoning about contextualization, causation, and continuity and change over time; and developing historical arguments. The course provides five themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: interaction between humans and the environment; development and interaction of cultures; state building, expansion, and conflict; creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems; and development and transformation of social structures.

United States History - College Prep

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grade 11

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "A"

The content of this course emphasizes a chronological study of American History focusing on the relationship of past to present with the primary emphasis on the history of America in the 20th century. While history is the key social science discipline in this course, the concepts of geography, economics, sociology and government are also stressed.

United States History, EL - College Prep

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grade 11

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "A"

This course is designed for English Language Learners and its curriculum mirrors that of the regular United States History course.

Advanced Placement United States History

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grade 11

Prerequisites: Completion of World History with a "B" or Higher is Preferred

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "A"

AP History is a chronological survey course covering the period from Colonial America to contemporary America. The AP program is designed to provide the student with the analytical skills and factual knowledge to deal critically with the problems and issues in U.S. History. The course prepares students for college courses by making demands equivalent to those made by a full year introductory college course. Students will learn to assess historical materials – their relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability, and their importance, and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. The course prepares students for the AP exam and students are strongly encouraged to take the exam. Summer work may be a requirement of this course.

American Government - College Prep

Credits: 5 Credits total

Grade 12

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "A"

Students inquire into the decision-making processes that exist in America’s governmental institutions on the federal, state and local levels. Emphasis is placed on the process of decision-making in such institutions as the presidency, the Congress, the court system and the bureaucracy. This is a semester course taken in conjunction with Economics CP.

Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics

Credits: 5 Credits total

Grade 12

Prerequisites: Completion of United States Government with a "B" or Higher is Preferred

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "G"

This course involves general concepts of the U.S. Constitution. Emphasis is given to the relationship of the citizen to the structure and function of the American constitutional system. It also involves familiarity with the various institutions, groups, and beliefs that constitute U.S. politics.  The course prepares students for the AP exam and students are strongly encouraged to take the exam. Summer work may be a requirement of this course.

Economics - College Prep

Credits: 5 Credits total

Grade 12

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "G"

Economics is the study of how human beings make decisions regarding use of resources. Emphasis will be on applied economics, including use of money, banking, supply and demand, and the organization of businesses and corporations. The course will also place an emphasis on comparative economic systems. This is a semester course taken in conjunction with American Government CP.

Advanced Placement Macroeconomics

Credits: 5 Credits total

Grade 12

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "G"

This is a rigorous and academically challenging course and students will engage in college-level critical thinking daily. Curriculum covers fundamental economic concepts such as financial markets/institutions, graphing, statistics, and economic decision making. Students prepare for and take the AP exam in May of the school year.

Ethnic Studies - College Prep

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grades 9 - 12

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "G"

Ethnic Studies centers the stories, experiences, and knowledge of People of Color through challenging and dismantling systems of oppression. It is a course that cultivates communities that are committed to wellness, liberation, and solidarity.

Financial Literacy - College Prep

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grades 9 - 12

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "G"

Personal Finance is designed to help students make informed decisions about real world financial issues. This course will give students the tools and resources needed to make wise financial decisions. Students will analyze their personal financial decisions, evaluate the costs and benefits of their decisions, recognize their rights and responsibilities as consumers, and apply the knowledge learned to financial situations encountered later in life. Students will design personal and household budgets and simulate the use of checking and saving accounts. They will be able to demonstrate a solid understanding of investment, debt, and credit management, as well as apartment rental/ lease agreements, practices and policies. Students will gain a solid understanding of car, home and health insurance policies and practices while learning to be a savvy consumer and price shop. There will be a focus on learning the different types of income and payroll taxes, and students will practice how to properly complete and successfully file IRS form 1040EZ and State of California income taxes.

History of Sports - College Prep

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grades 9 - 12

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "G"

This class will cover the history of various sports of student interest and would cover other significant events attached to them such as Mohammad Ali and his battle with the government, the Munich Olympics, Olympic boycotts, integration of sports including baseball and the social impact of those events.

History through Film - College Prep

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grades 9 - 12

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "G"

This elective course examines the ways in which the major themes and issues in modern American history have been expressed in the iconic films from the 20th century. As they build on their knowledge of American history from 11th grade, students will explore the significance of films as primary sources: What do the films reveal about the period in which they were produced? How do the movies reflect the major social issues, conflicts or changes of the time? How did popular films inform or influence the country in the 20th century? By watching, discussing, and writing about American films, students will examine how motion pictures reflect and influence American culture and society. In other words, students will learn how to “read” American films as cultural texts that support a deeper understanding of 20th century American history.

Social Justice Movements - College Prep

Credits: 10 credits total (5 credits per quarter)

Grades 9 - 12

Meets UC/CSU Requirements: Area "G"

How have different groups sought to assert their rights, needs and independence in modern world history? This course examines specific protest movements--including women’s rights, civil rights movements, and the environmental movement--across the world. It also looks, more broadly, about the idea of protest and how that has shifted over time. It will examine what makes people protest and why some movements are successful when others are not. The unit will look at what rights people should have to protest and examine if and when protest is justified, and what (if any) means of protest are unacceptable.