Cherry Hill Schools Named to AP Honor Roll

The Cherry Hill school district has joined an exclusive club, becoming one of just 34 districts in New Jersey and one of just 539 nationwide to get named to the College Board’s third annual AP Honor Roll.

The distinction comes from the district’s increasing number of students who score at least a 3 on Advanced Placement (AP) tests—it jumped from 88 percent to 92 percent at East, and from 69 percent to 74 percent at West—and increased access to the 21 AP courses the district offers at both high schools.

“The Cherry Hill school district strives to challenge all of our students,” said Superintendent Maureen Reusche. “We are proud to offer a wide array of AP courses in addition to our honors and accelerated course offerings.”

That trend of increased AP enrollment is continuing this year, school administrators said. The switch in scheduling this year has opened up more opportunities for students, who can now take eight classes instead of seven—and they aren’t shying away from the tough sections, according to Jim Riordan, Cherry Hill’s director of guidance.

“We've seen a growth this year in students going into the AP courses,” Riordan said. “In some of those, we almost doubled the enrollment.”

A dual-credit deal with Camden County College might be helping to fuel that increase, as well, Riordan said. Students in four of the district’s AP classes can earn credits from the county college by completing those courses and scoring highly on the exams; those credits then automatically transfer to any in-state public colleges and universities.

“There’s a lot of motivation for them,” Riordan said.

Whether the increased enrollment translates into more assessments or more students sitting for exams is a tough call, Riordan said—last year, there were more than 1,000 AP exams taken between the two high schools, though in some cases, students took multiple exams through the course of the year.

It’s not a requirement to take the AP test at the end of an AP course—there are extra fees involved—though Riordan said many students choose to, especially in the dual-credit sections. While not all colleges and universities hand out college credits, as had been common, there are still chances for students to bypass lower-level courses by scoring highly on an AP test.

“It’s a big investment,” Riordan said.

Even with the bump in AP enrollment this year, Riordan said district administrators and guidance staff still try to identify students who could benefit from AP coursework and guide those students into that track.

At the same time, the district also fields an AP teaching staff Riordan called second-to-none. Those teachers have to be specifically certified for AP sections, including an audit by the College Board.

“It’s a whole process of putting that person in the front of the class,” Riordan said. “They're top-notch educators.”

And while continuing to push students in the classroom is important, Riordan said the distinction isn’t merely a product of what goes on inside the walls of East and West.

“It comes from a community that values education,” he said. “It's something that we get as part of the community.”