Schools Make Honor Roll

COLLEGE BOARD RECOGNIZES SCHOOLS THAT INCREASE ACCESS TO AP COURSES

PRAIRIE GROVE — Two area high schools were named to a national honor roll that recognizes districts for their Advanced Placement program.

Prairie Grove and Farmington school districts made the College Board’s 4th Annual AP District Honor Roll.

This is the second consecutive year that Prairie Grove has made the list.

“This is the fourth year for the AP Honor Roll and we’ve made it twice,” Principal Ron Bond told the Prairie Grove School Board at its Dec. 16 meeting. “We’re excited to be recognized by the AP organization. Being placed on that honor roll provides validation that there’s evidence of the work being put in by our students and teachers.”

Jon Purifoy, Farmington High principal, also said he was excited that Farmington was included on the 2013 list.

“That’s absolutely awesome,” Purifoy said.

Each year, the College Board recognizes schools that increase access to AP courses while increasing the percentage of students who score a 3 or higher on the AP exams at the end of the year. For 2013, 477 school districts in the United States and Canada were named to the honor roll, according to the College Board website.

The district honor roll is based on three years of AP data. For the latest honor roll, the College Board considered data from 2011-2013.

Prairie Grove’s AP results show that the high school gave 73 AP exams in 2011, 223 exams in 2012 and 265 exams in 2013. In 2011, 17 students scored a 3 or higher on an AP exam. This jumped to 68 students scoring a 3 or better in 2013. In 2011, 30.1 percent of the test scores were 3 or higher. in 2013, 41.1 percent of the test scores were a 3 or higher.

Superintendent Allen Williams said the school expects to give 340 to 350 exams in spring 2014.

Farmington High’s AP participation increased from 94 students in 2011 to 128 in 2012 to 159 in 2013, according to Clint Jones, assistant superintendent. In 2011, Farmington gave 154 AP exams and this jumped to 277 exams in 2013. In 2011, 32 students had a score of 3 or higher on their exam. This increased to 57 students with a score of 3 or better in 2013. For 2013, 36 percent of the AP students scored three or higher.

Districts had to meet three criteria for the honor roll: increase participation and access to AP classes by a certain percentage depending on the size of the district, improve performance levels and ensure that participation did not decrease for minority groups by more than 10 percent.