VALDOSTA – State School Superintendent Richard Woods recently named 230 Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Schools for 2019. Valdosta High School earned the distinctions of AP Access and Support School and AP STEM School.
“It’s essential that we offer a robust set of opportunities to Georgia students, and Advanced Placement is an important part of that,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods. “I congratulate the educators and leaders who worked to create strong AP programs in these 230 Georgia schools, ultimately connecting students with high-level coursework and the opportunity to gain college credit.”
AP exams are administered by the College Board, which also administers the SAT. AP courses are one of several ways Georgia students can access college-level learning at the high-school level; students who receive a 3, 4, or 5 on an AP exam may receive college credit. The 2019 AP Honor Schools are named in six categories, based on the results of 2018 AP courses and exams. A list of categories is below and a full list of schools in each category is linked in the description.
The Georgia Department of Education began recognizing AP Honor Schools in 2008. This recognition began with three categories: AP Access and Support Schools; AP Challenge Schools; and AP Merit Schools. AP STEM and AP STEM Achievement categories were added in 2011, and the AP Humanities category was added in 2015.
Georgia’s public-school class of 2018 is ranked 16th in the nation for the percentage of students scoring 3, 4, or 5 on at least one AP exam during high school, and 13th in the nation for AP participation.
Dr. Janice Richardson, principal of Valdosta High School said, “We take great pride in knowing that we offer our students a wide variety of rigor through our educational opportunities here at VHS. We are so proud to receive these accolades, but we know without a strong teaching staff along with willing and dedicated students, our name would not have been on these lists. I am very proud of every member of this team who worked hard to earn these honors.”
Categories
AP Access and Support Schools (64 named) [LINK]
Schools with at least 30% of AP exams taken by students who identified themselves as African-American and/or Hispanic and 30% of all AP exams earning scores of 3 or higher
AP STEM Schools (200 named) [LINK]
Schools with students testing in at least two AP math courses and two AP science 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)
