Richards High gears up for AP Rush

Enrollment in Advanced Placement programs, along with the number of passed exams and nationally recognized scholars have grown immensely in recent years at Richards High School in Oak Lawn, and District 218 as a whole, according to a news release from the district.

That growth has stemmed in large part from efforts 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 is peaking this week at Richards with AP Rush, a highly-visible campaign to motivate students to embrace academic challenges. Course selection for the 2023-2024 academic year starts soon.

Freshmen attended presentations on the benefits, challenges, facts, and myths of AP courses while students already in the classes wore AP shirts to illustrate just how many have accepted the challenge.

Current AP students also worked at booths promoting AP courses in biology, statistics, English literature, calculus, computer science, and many others during a course fair Thursday and Friday.

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, district officials said.

“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,” said Anthony Corsi, District 218 director of assessment.