Advanced Placement Overview
The Advanced Placement Program is the primary method the district is using to help develop college-level academic skills. Advanced Placement (AP) classes also offer other benefits including helping students select a major in college, allowing students to have more room in their college schedule to double major or take more electives and saving students money when they get to college. Research tells us that the rigor of a student’s high school curriculum is the single best predictor of college success. (Department of Education). We also know that students who take an Advanced Placement class as a freshman in high school are twice as likely to earn a qualifying score in subsequent AP classes their sophomore through senior years. A recent study done in Texas suggested that “even a score of two out of a possible five points on an AP exam correlates with better college performance than that achieved by students who did not take AP or who skipped the AP exam” (Washington Post). Therefore, the district is committed to offering Advanced Placement courses that will prepare students for college readiness performance.