Eastside High School earns top recognition from College Board for Advanced Placement program

The College Board has announced that Eastside High School has been named to the 2024 Platinum AP (Advanced Placement) Honor Roll.

On its website, the College Board, which administers the AP program, says the Honor Roll program “recognizes schools whose AP programs are delivering results for students while broadening access.” Schools can earn the recognition annually based on criteria that reflect a commitment to increasing college-going culture, providing opportunities for students to earn college credit and maximizing college readiness. The program offers four levels of recognition — Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

“AP gives students opportunity to engage with college-level work, to earn college credit and placement, and to potentially boost their grade point averages,” said Trevor Packer, head of the AP program. “The schools that have earned this distinction are proof that it is possible to expand access to these college-level courses and still drive strong performance — they represent the best of AP.”

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Schools are recognized based on three criteria, including the percentage of all full-time graduating seniors who took an AP course, the percentage who earned a score of 3 or above on an AP exam (which results in college credit), and the percentage who took at least five AP courses, including at least one as a freshman or sophomore.

To earn platinum status, at least 80% of a school’s graduating class must have taken an AP course, 50% must have passed and at least 15% must have taken a total of five AP exams, including one in ninth or 10th grade.

Eastside High topped all three benchmarks by a wide margin. Ninety-four percent of the school’s more than 200 graduating seniors took an AP course before graduating, 58% passed at least one AP exam and 56% took at least five AP courses, including one in ninth or 10th grade.

Eastside High Principal Leroy Williams says the school encourages many students who are typically underrepresented in AP classrooms to take those courses and to stick with them even if they experience some early challenges. The school also offers support, including a teacher who serves as a mentor for those students.

“We’ve found that even if they don’t pass the exam, students taking an AP course do much better academically, they build their confidence and they end up graduating and going to college,” Williams said. “Just the exposure to the higher-level material makes a big difference.”

Other ACPS high schools also were recognized in this year’s AP Honor Roll program, including: Buchholz High (Silver); Gainesville High (Silver); Professional Academies Magnet@Loften High (Bronze) and Santa Fe High (Bronze). GHS, Hawthorne and Buchholz all earned Platinum recognition for at least one of the three criteria.

“Our district has always encouraged more students to take rigorous courses like AP while also offering them the support they need to be successful in those classes,” said Superintendent Shane Andrew. “It’s gratifying to see the concrete results of those efforts. I congratulate our teachers and staff, our students and their families for all they’ve done to reach these high standards.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Eastside High School earns top recognition from College Board for Advanced Placement program