Gwinnett Schools Earn National AP Honor

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — Gwinnett County Public Schools have received a national honor for being among the top large school districts in the country.

Gwinnett was named a College Board Advanced Placement District of the Year. The honor is for being one of the country's best systems at expanding access to advanced placement courses for students, while, at the same time, improving performance on AP exams.

Students, teachers and administrators celebrated the honor with an event at Duluth High School on Tuesday.

Gwinnett was one of 433 school districts across the United States and Canada placed on the annual AP District Honor Roll. From that list, three Districts of the Year — one for each category of small, medium or large systems — was named.

The selection is based on an analysis of three years of AP data.

Gwinnett was honored in the large-district category, for systems with 50,000 or more students.

We are excited that the work of our students and teachers has been recognized by College Board," schools CEO and Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks said in a news release. “We are very pleased with the gains we have seen in Advanced Placement testing, in terms of both participation and performance.

"In Gwinnett County Public Schools we take pride in our efforts to challenge students to higher levels of achievement and our work with AP is evidence of this success."

Trevor Packer, head of the College Board's AP program, said the honor shows that Gwinnett schools are challenging students to achieve at the highest levels.

"The teachers and administrators in this district are clearly committed to ensuring that a more diverse population of students attains the benefits of AP — that they gain confidence, learn how to craft and defend arguments, earn college credit, and are ready to succeed in college," Packer said in the release.

From 2014 to 2016, Gwinnett County Public Schools:

• Increased the number of students taking AP classes while improving successful outcomes (a score of 3 or higher) on AP Exams, with 61 percent of all AP students scoring a 3 or higher in 2016
• Increased student participation in AP by five percent annually and the percentage of students scoring a 3 or higher on at least one AP Exam by one percent annually
• Increased the percentage of traditionally underrepresented minority AP students earning a 3 or higher on at least one AP Exam by two percent annually — an increase of 914 students since 2014.

Participating in AP course work can lead to college savings for families because the typical student who scores a 3 or higher on two AP Exams has the potential to save, on average, $1,779 at a public four-year college and over $6,000 at a private institution.
In addition to celebratory events at the district level, all three winning districts will be honored in Washington, DC during the 2017 AP Annual Conference in July.

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