Forsyth Schools Named To AP District Honor Roll

CUMMING, GA — Forsyth County Schools has once again been placed on the College Board’s 10th Annual AP District Honor Roll. A total of 250 school districts across the U.S. and Canada are being honored by the College Board for simultaneously increasing access to Advanced Placement coursework while maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on Advanced Placement Exams.

Forsyth County is one of only five school districts in Georgia that met the criteria to be placed on the Advanced Placement District Honor Roll this year. This is Forsyth Schools' seventh time on the Advanced Placement Honor Roll list.

The other Georgia districts are:

• Coweta County School District, Newnan
• Dade County Schools, Trenton
• Hart County Schools, Hartwell
• Whitfield County Schools, Dalton

Criteria used for inclusion in the 2019 Advanced Placement District Honor Roll include the following:

1. Increased access to Advanced Placement courses by
   1. At least 4 percent in large districts
   2. At least 6 percent in medium districts
   3. At least 11 percent in small districts
2. Increased or maintained the percentage of exams taken by African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native students, and;
3. Improved performance levels when comparing the percentage of students in 2019 scoring a 3 or higher to those in 2017, unless the district has already attained a performance level at which more than 70 percent of its Advanced Placement students are scoring a 3 or higher.

State School Superintendent Richard Woods also named 255 Advanced Placement Honor Schools for 2020.

“I commend the students, teachers, and staff of these 255 schools,” Woods said. “Behind this recognition is an enormous amount of hard work, and I congratulate all those who worked to expand access, improve performance, and build strong Advanced Placement programs in each school recognized today.”

The Georgia Department of Education began recognizing Advanced Placement Honor Schools in 2008. This recognition began with three categories:

• Advanced Placement Access and Support Schools
• Advanced Placement Challenge Schools
• Advanced Placement Merit Schools

Advanced Placement STEM and Advanced Placement STEM Achievement categories were added in 2011, and the Advanced Placement Humanities category was added in 2015. This year two new categories were added: Advanced Placement Humanities Achievement and Advanced Placement Expansion Schools. The Advanced Placement Merit Schools category was renamed Advanced Placement Schools of Distinction.

Categories:

• AP Access and Support Schools (78 named)
  • Schools with at least 30 percent of AP exams taken by students who identified themselves as African- American and/or Hispanic and 30 percent of all AP exams earning scores of 3 or higher
• AP Challenge Schools (39 named)
  • Schools with enrollments of 900 or fewer students and students testing in English, math, science, and social studies

• AP Schools of Distinction (70 named)
  • Schools with at least 20 percent of the total student population taking AP exams and at least 50 percent of all AP exams earning scores of 3 or higher
• AP Expansion Schools (34 named)
  • AP schools with 25 percent growth in AP participation from May 2018 to May 2019 and a minimum of 25 students testing in May 2018
• AP Humanities Schools (85 named)
  • Schools with a minimum of five students testing in each of the following AP categories: one ELA course, two history/social science courses, one fine arts course and one world language course
• AP Humanities Achievement Schools (70 named)
  • AP Humanities schools (see above definition) with at least 50 percent of all AP Humanities exams earning scores of 3 or higher
• AP STEM Schools (183 named)
  • Schools with a minimum of five students testing in at least four AP STEM courses (AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics 1, AP Physics 2, AP Physics C, AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles)
• AP STEM Achievement Schools (94 named)
  • AP STEM schools (see above definition) with at least 50 percent of all AP STEM exams earning scores of 3 or higher.