AP Academy held at Oak Ridge High School

Last week, Oak Ridge High School hosted the AP Academy, a College Board-endorsed Advanced Placement Summer Institute for teachers, led by certified AP consultants.

Now in its 14th year, the academy hosted new and veteran teachers of Advanced Placement courses for a four-day, subject-specific workshop aimed at providing support and training needed to teach AP courses. Teachers came together from schools across the country and as far away as Saudi Arabia to exchange ideas. This year, enrollment was up from 105 to 167 teachers.

Oak Ridge High School boasts an extremely robust AP program, and most of the consultants who led these workshops are former Oak Ridge High School teachers, a press release said. Students who take an AP course and pass an AP exam may earn college credit while still in high school.

Oak Ridge Schools Keys to College and Career Readiness Key 7 states that the goal is for all students to participate in AP coursework, dual enrollment, industry certification, or military preparation program by graduation.

The graduating class of 2014 earned a total of 1,417 AP course credits. The percentage of seniors who took an AP course was up from 61.3 percent for the class of 2013 to 62.6 percent for the class of 2014.

The number of AP exams administered this past spring was also up from 621 in 2013 to 702. Of those students who took exams, 111 were named AP Scholars. This includes 45 Scholars (score a three or higher on three or more exams), 19 Scholars with Honors (average a 3.25 for all exams and score a three or higher on four or more exams), and 47 Scholars with Distinction (average a 3.5 for all exams and score a three or higher on five or more
exams).

Twelve students were named National Scholars (average a four for all exams and score a four or higher on eight or more exams).