College Board honors Shepard

The College Board recently announced that Richards and Shepard high schools have been named to the Advanced Placement® Program School Honor Roll. Both earned Bronze distinction for the first time.

Those smiling faces? The AP teachers (many, not all) and Associate Principal Marie Cerwin (AP coordinator for Shepard) and counselor Aminah Garcia (hired specifically a few years ago to work recruitment and support for AP students.)

“Earning this designation is a wonderful achievement for our district schools. This reflects years of hard work by our staff to build the culture where students have the expectation to take and succeed in an AP course before they graduate,” said superintendent Dr. Josh Barron.

The AP School Honor Roll recognizes schools whose AP programs are delivering results for students while broadening access.

Schools can earn this 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 district has worked diligently for several years to remove institutional barriers, identify more underrepresented students and students of color students, and encourage them to take AP courses. A partnership with Equal Opportunity Schools from 2019 to 2021 also positively impacted AP enrollment.

To this end, Shepard also earned the AP Access Award for “providing all students the chance to participate in AP, including students of underrepresented populations.”

“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.”

Additionally, Eisenhower High School met two of the three criteria for the AP School Honor Roll, missing the third by a single percentage point.

Earlier this semester District 218 learned the decade-plus trend of growth and improvement on Advanced Placement exams has expanded. This year for the first time 25% of the graduating class passed at least one AP exam during their high school careers, meaning one in four graduating seniors left District 218 with college course credit earned from The College Board. It’s the first time in district history a group of seniors has achieved this milestone.

The College Board released a raft of information detailing the upward movement in AP in District 218.

The overall pass rate on national A.P. exams leaped to an all-time high of 51% from 43% in 2023, 41% in 2022 and 35% in 2021.

The most recent instance of the district’s AP students coming close to this all-time high was in 2009, but that was based on 309 passing exams which was 50.9% of the exams taken. This year, district students passed 1089 exams for a 51.2% overall passage rate.

Further, students averaged passing scores of at least a ‘3’ on more than half (16 of 28) of the AP courses offered in District 218. AP scoring ranges from a low of ‘1’ to a high of ‘5.’

Also, compared to 2023, 40 more AP students earned individual AP Scholar recognition from The College Board for their performance on exams.

Growth among students of color offered perhaps even more significant news.

In the past decade, the number of Black students enrolled in AP courses has grown from 104 to 184. Likewise, over the same span, the number of Latino students enrolled in AP classes has increased from 234 to 527.

AP classes challenge students with university-level rigor. Passing a national AP exam qualifies an Illinois student to earn college credit for that subject’s introductory college course at any Illinois public university.

While enrollment grew steadily for more than a decade, the number of students taking AP courses surged in 2019-2020 when District 218 partnered with Equal Opportunity Schools to recruit more students of color.

Overall in District 218, the number of students enrolled in AP courses increased from 924 to 1,147 between 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. The number dipped slightly to 1,137 in 2021-2022. Last year the district increased enrollment to 1,273.