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School Start Time Survey

Orange County Public Schools invites all families, employees and community members to participate in the School Start Times Survey to help the district decide whether to change school start times for high schools and elementary schools. Your participation is important because it ensures all our families’ voices are heard in this process.

Florida Statute mandates that school districts set middle and high school start times later in the morning, unless the district can provide a report including how their students, employees, families and community members feel about the change.

Research stresses the importance of middle and high school students getting enough sleep, and moving high school start times to later in the morning may help. Under the proposed change, elementary schools would start earlier than middle schools and high schools.

Please take a moment to answer the questions to this survey.

Click here to complete the survey.

1 day ago

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Advanced Studies

Why Advanced Studies?

  • The College Board says that taking challenging classes in high school is a great way to build new skills. And it will serve you well when you get to college because you'll be more prepared for the work. In a recent survey of first-year college students, more than half of the students surveyed said they wished they had worked harder in high school.
  • Challenging classes, such as AP and AICE are college-level courses, which help you get into college. They are exactly what admissions officers like to see on applications.
  • There are other good reasons to switch classes in high school to advanced studies and college-level courses. In the survey mentioned above, most students who took college-level courses as part of the Advanced Placement® or International Baccalaureate programs said that these classes were more worthwhile and interesting than others.

Experience a Different Approach

  • Honors and college-level courses differ from regular classes in various ways. Here’s a brief overview of some of the classes that may be available to you:
    • College Board's AP Program offers college-level classes that help students develop and apply skills, such as reading critically, solving problems analytically, and writing clearly.     
    • East River's AP course selection is more focused on STEM classes.
    •  Cambridge International's AICE Program offers college-level classes that help students with writing skills, and real-life applications of content to global issues.
    • East River's AICE course selection is geared toward helping students earn the AICE diploma certificate, with a broad selection of various courses.

Find Your Passion

  • Courses like these can introduce you to topics and ideas not covered in the regular classroom. You may even discover the subject that will become your college major or the focus of your career.
  • Build Important Skills
  • Stronger writing skills
  • Problem-solving abilities
  • Time-management skills
  • Discipline
  • Good study habits
  • Prepare for College
  • Showing that you're willing to push yourself by taking rigorous classes in high school can help when you're applying to college. The level of courses you take now is one of the first things colleges look at.
  • In addition, college courses, IB classes and exams, and AP Exams may lead to college credit, advanced placement, or both in college. This means you may be able to skip some basic college courses and move directly into interesting, advanced classes. This also may allow you to free up enough time to pursue a double major or study abroad.