Alief Advanced Academic Course (Alief AAC) and Advanced Placement

Identified gifted students in middle and high school are served through Alief Advanced Academic Course (Alief AAC) and Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

Alief AAC:

Courses identified as Alief Advanced Academic Course are in the same content area as Advanced Placement courses designed to develop the skills and concepts necessary for a student to be successful. The College Board recommends that a continuum of these skills be taught as a foundation leading up to the challenging and rigorous courses in the AP program.

AP Courses:

Advanced Placement courses are college-level courses which are challenging and rigorous and allow students to pursue and receive credit for college-level work while in high school. Students who complete AP courses are expected to sit for AP Exams. Earning designated scores on these exams allows students to earn college credit for the courses while still in high school. Only those courses recognized and tested through The College Board's AP Exams may carry the AP designation. All AP courses offered in Alief have been approved through the College Board AP Audit.

Enrolling in Alief AAC/AP Courses: 

Gifted students are automatically signed up for the core Alief AAC content courses in their areas of academic strength in middle school and are highly encouraged to continue to enroll in these courses in high school.  Alief also has an open-enrollment policy for Alief AAC and AP courses so students with high ability and a desire to take advanced level courses, but who are not identified as gifted, may also participate in these courses. Instruction is differentiated within the Alief AAC/AP curriculum for the identified GT student. These courses are taught by teachers who have the initial 30 hours of gifted training and continue to earn the annual 6-hour update as required by the Texas Education Agency.

 Students enrolling through the open-enrollment policy must:

• have an 80 or higher average in the content area for which they are enrolling and/or
• have passed the most current EOC test in the content area for which they are enrolling.  If there is no EOC test for that content, students must have passed the most current Reading/English EOC.