<p>For secondary schools, three levels is sufficient, IMO.</p>
<p>PG, at my sons’ school there is a huge difference between honors and AP-level courses. The reading material in English, for example. The highest-level class is reading The Iliad freshman year while the honors level is reading “The House on Mango Street.” Nothing wrong with the Sandra Cisneros book, but you just get a different level of motivated students at the highest-level course. I know kids who have gone back and forth between the levels, most moving up because the level of discussion is so much more interesting at the highest level.</p>