As is the post-finals norm at New Trier, freshmen, sophomore, and junior students returned to school last week and were immediately greeted by course registration for 2014-2015. While most students and parents refer to the Program of Studies to help in the process, few actually realize the thought process behind the numerous offerings that make up the 115 page book.

According to Matthew Ottaviano, New Trier’s Assistant Principal for Administrative Services, teachers and departments periodically decide to update the curriculum. If a given course has been “on the books” for several years and was approved by the Board of Education several years prior, its curriculum will be reviewed. If certain aspects of the subject have changed, a new text might be introduced, or the course will morph into something else.

“For example, in the sciences, when all of a sudden genetics was exploding, biology had to change over a period of time, so they rewrote some of the curriculum. If they don’t change the course dramatically, it’s just viewed as an adjustment in the curriculum,” said Ottaviano.

Also causing changes to New Trier’s course offerings are new curricular developments in elementary school.

“Spanish 6 is a brand new course. They’re starting to teach Spanish earlier in the elementary districts, so kids can go that far now, as opposed to Spanish 5,” said Ottaviano.

The introduction of new courses such as this one is another factor that changes the makeup of the Program of Studies. Ottaviano noted that sometimes courses are proposed that don’t even exist, thus prompting an approval process.

Specifically speaking, cuisine classes have recently been altered, and the course options for seniors was expanded to include International Foods. The process for a situation like this, explained Ottaviano, is that the department will recommend a course to the administration, and the administration will move forward with it. It will then go through a review process with the associate superintendent and a “curriculum council” (a group of teachers representing all departments). Ultimately, a course proposal will end up at the school board for approval. Once approved by the board, it will show up in the program of studies as a choice for students to make.

There are courses that are currently undergoing this exact process in preparation for next year’s offerings.

“The integrated science and history course that has been popular in the past has been removed from the books temporarily, because the curriculum of the course needs to be revised,” said Ottaviano. “It’ll go through the Board again as a revision, and hopefully show up next year in the program of studies.”

Other new courses set to be introduced for the 2014-2015 school year include Kinetic Wellness I/Dance I, open to freshmen at the Northfield campus, and Digital Electronics (as part of the Project Lead the Way program), open to juniors and seniors at the Winnetka campus.

Despite the enormous effort that goes into the selection process, students are often unaware of the year-to-year variations in the offerings.

“A lot of my teachers have been talking about it and I just listen to what they say. I don’t really notice when any of the courses change,” said junior Ellie Wiley.

“To be honest, when my teachers lay out my options for next year, I get excited. But I just pick what I’m interested in,” said junior Nathan Reiff.

Ottaviano added that the amount of course changes vary from year to year.

“Sometimes just a couple dozen courses overall are touched, and other times there will be some wholesale moves, like with Spanish,” said Ottaviano. “Everything sort of has to be readjusted for Spanish 6, so they look at it across the board.”

Unsurprisingly, New Trier’s most populated classes are also its four year requirements: English and Kinetic Wellness. But according to Ottaviano, about 95% of students take four years of science, even though New Trier only has a two year requirement.

Said Ottaviano, “We know these trends, so we have summer school and early-bird science courses. We know that we don’t have enough space to accommodate 95% of our students during the school year with the labs and space that we have.”