Brophy has started to enforce the requirement of “demonstrated struggle” to drop Honors/AP classes for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, which was announced during scheduling presentations on Jan. 8, counselors informed their students that
The rule requiring someone to show demonstrated struggle in an Honors/AP class isn’t new. It has been around for some years although it was only loosely enforced. The Brophy Counseling Department has decided to start enforcing this rule after too many people are dropping Honors/AP classes.
They decided to start enforcing this rule after too many people signed up and then dropped their classes. “8 years ago, the percentage of kids who stuck with their original choice was higher than … what that percentage is now,” said Mr. Seamus Walsh, assistant principal for academic affairs.
The main reasons why this caused problems are how the schedule is made and the time it takes to change. The schedule is made trying to hit a certain class size which influences how many periods there are. When people opt to take the Honors or AP class that decreases the number of people taking regular classes hence the number of regular periods decreases.
When someone opts to drop their class, they are added to the regular class which increases the average class size outside of the preferable range.
“So now we’ve got [average] class size that we try to rig at 25 [students] becomes 28.5 [students],” Mr. Walsh said.
It also takes a lot of time for Mr. Oldani and the college counselors to alter schedules, especially when too many students need changes.
One of the problems that contributed to many people dropping classes was that they changed their minds.
“Our perception, the six counselors upstairs, Myself, Mr. Oldani, the advisors, our perception is that when we hear kids say they want to drop, by and large, it’s not because it’s too hard, it’s because they changed their mind. And the fact of the matter is, we built a schedule based on what they said.” Mr. Walsh said.
On top of this, Mr. Walsh said he and the rest of the schedulers believe that students can at least get a B if they were accepted into a class.
“We believe that all those kids, if they really do their best work, can do B work or above,” said Mr. Walsh.
Not all students agree with that assessment, however. Benedict Bercy ’27, who has dropped an AP class previously, said, “If [students] feel like they physically or mentally can’t do it … they should have the option to drop it.”