Dr. Heather Donaldson
Chief Academic Officer
Madison City Schools
At the February 6 Board of Education meeting, the 2025-2026 middle and high school course offerings were approved. This kicks off the course registration process for our middle and high schools.
Madison City Schools (MCS) revises the course offerings annually making changes to our existing courses, adding courses, or removing courses to ensure that we offer a viable curriculum, innovative programs, and experiences that provide the greatest opportunities for our students to excel. Revising the curriculum catalog is a tremendous team effort and involves several people from the district and school level.
One change to our middle school offerings involves Career Prep. Starting with the 2025-2026 school year, the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) will no longer allow districts to provide the full credit Career Prep course to 8th grade students. MCS will still be allowed to offer Career Prep A for a 0.5 credit in the middle school. This school year, MCS has 510 8th students taking the full 1.0 credit of Career Prep. Traditionally, half of the 8th grade class opts to take the high school Career Prep class while in middle school. Moving forward, students can earn the 0.5 credit of Career Prep A in 8th grade, and then students will have the opportunity to earn the 0.5 credit of Career Prep B in high school through an in-person class or ACCESS online class. Students will continue to have the opportunity to take the full 1.0 credit of Career Prep in high school. The state is also discontinuing the opportunity to fulfill the 1.0 Career Prep credit through JROTC. The 2024-2025 school year is the last opportunity for the students in high school JROTC to earn the Career Prep credit.
A few changes to the high school course offerings include the expansion of our Cybersecurity program. Two new Advanced Placement courses will be added through a pilot with the College Board. AP Cyber I will replace the existing Networking class, and AP Cyber II will replace the existing Cyber I course. Cyber III will also be added to the course offerings.
Course names will look different for a few Career Tech Academies due to programmatic changes from the state department. However, this will not alter the courses that will be offered in the programs. The course name changes are outlined in the graphic below.
MCS is preparing for an exciting expansion of Arts A/V. For 2025-2026, both Bob Jones and James Clemens will offer Arts A/V courses through the newly designed state program called Entertainment and Media. James Clemens courses will remain the same (note the name changes in the graphic below). Bob Jones will start an Entertainment and Media Academy and begin offering these courses in the 2025-2026 school year. Former James Clemens Jets Press teacher, Mr. Clay Combs, will lead film and broadcasting internship opportunities district-wide for students from both high schools.
The 2025-2026 school year will also bring an exciting new Career Tech Academy to both high schools: Additive Manufacturing. Both high schools will offer Introduction to Manufacturing and 3-D Solid Modeling I for the 2025-2026 school year.
Additional important pieces include new graduation requirements outlined by the state department and a new diploma option.
The ALSDE has added two new graduation requirements. The first is the Financial Literacy Exam starting with the current 9th grade cohort (Class of 2028). Students take the Financial Literacy Exam during the Career Prep course including 8th grade students enrolled in Career Prep for the 2024-2025 school year.
The second ALSDE requirement involves College and Career Readiness (CCR). Starting with the current 11th grade cohort (Class of 2026), students must earn CCR status in order to graduate.
Students can become CCR through any of the approved ALSDE indicators listed in the graphic below. The district and high school teams have been working diligently to ensure students are College and Career Ready to meet the graduation requirements.
The ALSDE added another diploma option that will go into effect for the 2025-2026 school year: the Workforce Pathway. The new diploma option (Option B / Workforce Pathway) decreases the math and science required credits from 4 each to 2 each.
The differences between the two diploma options are highlighted in yellow in the graphic below.
It is important to note that the new workforce pathway option may not meet college admissions requirements or NCAA eligibility requirements.
It is important for students to verify admissions and eligibility requirements before choosing diploma option 2. More information will be shared as students transition to the 2025-2026 school year.
Course registration information will be shared from schools later in February. Rising 6th and 9th grade students will have the opportunity to visit their future middle or high school later this spring. All middle and high schools will provide Curriculum Nights for students and parents to learn more about the course offerings in our middle and high schools.
We are excited about the opportunities that await our students in the 2025-2026 school year!!!
Comments