Verdugo Hills High School WASC Self-Study Page 1

Verdugo Hills High School WASC/CDE Self-Study ReportScience DepartmentAll general education students and the majority of special needs studentsparticipate in a sequential, standards-based curriculum offered by the VHHSScience Department. Each student is expected to achieve benchmark levelsof performance for every course. All students have access to opportunitiesfor enrichment and acceleration. Honors courses are open to all studentswho have the desire to undertake more challenging coursework.The VHHS Science department ensures that all students have equal accessto standards-based science curriculum which meets the LAUSD lab sciencerequirement of one biological science and one physical science and theUC/CSU “D” Lab Science admission requirements and advanced sciencerecommendations. All levels of science emphasize reading, data gathering,data analysis, critical thinking, problem solving, and research skills. With theuse of technology and laboratory experiments, students learn and applymeaningful, standards-based science concepts to classroom discussion, labs,and projects.At VHHS the science department has developed a Science CurricularPathway for sequential course enrollment: Standard and Accelerated. In theStandard pathway prior to fall 2012 Intercoordinated Science 1 (ICS1) wasan exclusively ninth grade, non-repeatable course. It fulfilled the Californiaand LAUSD graduation requirements for physical science, but does not meetUC/CSU laboratory science requirement and is in the process of beingphased out for A-G required courses. Instead, as of 2012-2013 moststudents are taking Biology as ninth graders. Students in the AcceleratedPathway will take Honors Biology in the fall and Honors Chemistry in thespring of their ninth grade year in preparation for future AP science courses.Students in the accelerated pathways are expected to enroll in one or moreof the following: AP Biology, AP Chemistry or AP Physics courses.Science teachers and counselors encourage students to undertake rigorousHonors and AP coursework for academic growth, pre-college preparation,and possible college credit for scoring a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP exams. APBiology and Chemistry students participate in the Saturday AP Readinessprogram at UCLA. Honors and AP teachers also participate in College BoardVerdugo Hills High School WASC Self-Study Page 76