In the 2014 to 2015 school year, freshmen and sophomore social studies classes will be switched to a new curriculum. Students partaking in this new curriculum will also have their graduation requirements changed.

In their freshmen year, students will take World History 1 and sophomores will take World History 2 and 3 instead of World Studies and then European Studies. For students who wish to take more challenging classes, honors will no longer be an option. Instead, AP Geography will be offered to freshmen and AP World History classes to sophomores.

“Our honors program is so huge that hopefully kids will still challenge themselves with the AP classes,” European Studies teacher Amy Cooke said.

This change will not affect the classes and graduation requirements of upperclassmen that have already taken World Studies and European Studies.

“I don’t think that’s necessarily fair that we don’t have the same option,” current Honors European Studies student, Maddy O’Connor said.

Sophomores who are taking Honors European Studies this year will have the option to take the AP test this spring, and Cooke will give them materials for review and the date of the test. However, this will require lots of outside studying.

“We cover probably two thirds of the material you will need to know,” Cooke said.

This extra studying, however, is difficult for students with extracurricular activities.

“I have other activities outside of school. I won’t have time to learn a whole other class for the test,” O’Connor said.

Another change being made to the graduation requirements is a mandatory four years of social studies as opposed to the current 3.5 credits. All of the social studies teachers from the district gathered to decide on these new classes and requirements in order to align Liberty’s curriculum with the state guidelines.