Advancement Placement enrollment, exams passed, and nationally-recognized scholars have grown immensely in recent years at Richards High School and District 218 as a whole.
In large part the growth has stemmed from finding ways to convince capable students that they possess the ability to succeed in AP, which offers university-level curricula and the opportunity to earn college credit during high school.
That encouragement peaks this week at Richards with AP Rush, a highly-visible campaign to motivate students to embrace academic challenge. Course selection for the 2023-2024 academic year starts soon.
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Freshmen attended presentations on the benefits, challenges, facts, and myths of AP courses. Currently enrolled students wore AP shirts to illustrate just how many have accepted the challenge.
And Thursday and Friday feature a course fair: Current AP students stationed at booths promoting AP courses in biology, statistics, English literature, calculus, computer science, and many others.
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After two years of COVID-related decline, last year District 218 students rebounded to extend the decade-plus pattern of growth and accomplishment on AP exams.
“AP scores have significantly rebounded. Given the large expansion of the AP population the past few years and the disruptions to teaching and learning over the past two years, the return to pre-pandemic scores is a remarkable achievement and indicates the district has tremendous momentum to improve,” District 218 Director of Assessment Anthony Corsi said.
