What are Honors courses?

High school honors courses represent an academic level of excellence that is above and beyond the standards of a standard Keystone high school course. Keystone's mission is to help students achieve their potential, and part of that is providing a challenging and rigorous Honors Program.

Honors courses are designed so that the student must complete -- on average -- an additional 20 hours of work. That additional work is focused on obtaining and testing higher-order thinking skills such as the synthesis and evaluation of course content. These thinking skills may be applied through an additional research project, an evaluation of a scientific study, or other applications.

Honors courses are appropriate for students seeking to excel and demonstrate that they can complete more challenging work in a particular subject area. Honors courses are appropriate for students looking for more of a challenge, that are college bound, or that seek a deeper mastery of a subject.

Keystone honors courses are currently offered in the following subjects: American Government; Biology; Chemistry; Civics; Earth Science; Economics; English 1, 2 or 3; Geography; and World History.