Hingham High School looks to expand business programming

The Hingham High School business department is looking to add an AP course, integrate career-boosting digital certifications, invest in a DECA club, and introduce programming at the middle school level, among other initiatives, according to Director of Social Studies Andy Hoey's recent presentation to the School Committee on the department’s internal review.

None of those plans are set in stone—Hingham Public Schools are facing a tight budget next year and do not have much money to spare to create new programs—but Hoey said that the “small but mighty” business department saw an all-time high enrollment in its elective courses this year and positioned it as an essential program making students “better thinkers, better communicators, better collaborators.”

The business department has one full-time and one part-time teacher and offers eight courses covering digital skills, accounting, investment, marketing and more. Currently, business courses are only available at the high school, and Hoey said that only 38% of the class that graduated in 2024 took a business class.

“It's a good amount, but clearly we are missing a large amount of the student body that would benefit perhaps from some of our offerings,” he said.

Hoey said that all business department classes were near or at capacity this year, so the department cannot offer its courses to many more students without more resources.

The business department does plan to offer one additional course next year: Advanced Placement Business with Personal Finance, which the College Board is launching next year. It will provide another opportunity for students to gain college-level business credit, in addition to the current dual enrollment partnership with Quincy College for two business department courses.

That development comes as the state is considering making personal finance education a graduation requirement. After MCAS exams were eliminated as a graduation requirement in late 2024, Governor Maura Healey’s office released a new framework for graduation requirements that included financial literacy education, but that framework has not been adopted.

“Whether it's something that we want to do or whether it's something the state forces us to do, we'll have to keep an eye on it,” Hoey said.

Hoey proposed a change meant to increase business department enrollment that was met with some resistance from the school committee: allowing more elective business classes to count toward students’ GPAs. In a survey, 57% of students in the class of 2024 said that they might have been more likely to take business classes if their grades would have factored into their GPAs, but School Committee Chair Jen Benham worried that that change could discourage some students from enrolling in business classes.

Hoey said that business department faculty surveyed business programming at other schools and found that some strong programs offered both unleveled courses—those that do not factor into student GPAs—and more advanced leveled courses.

“There is a possibility of having a blend to meet all interests,” he said, especially with the new offering of AP Business.

The department is also considering working DECA into its curriculum. DECA is a national organization that offers educational programs, conferences and competitions in marketing, finance and management, and Hingham High School operated a DECA club from 2017 to 2022.  other nearby schools, it has never used DECA programming as part of its coursework.

Hoey said that the potential curricular change that would be “the easiest lift” would be to add opportunities for students to get digital skill certifications into existing classes. Certifications in Microsoft programs could help students with résumé-building, he said.

The internal review found a gap in finance and digital skills education between the elementary and high schools, Hoey said. Elementary students learn to use Microsoft and Google software and receive keyboarding lessons, and Hingham High School offers a digital literacy course, but middle school students are not offered formal lessons in digital skills. This means that students enrolling in high school finance, investing and accounting courses have no prior finance education beyond projects in fifth and eighth grade.

The business department “meets the needs of many students, but there are limitations given the current structure of the program,” Hoey said. “Because this is a fully elective department, that means that many students don't experience these benefits.”

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