Heritage and Rockdale County high schools were named 2015 Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Schools by Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods.
"We are proud of our teachers, students and administrators for continuing to emphasize rigorous coursework which shows through these outstanding results," said Superintendent Richard Autry.
"We have made it a priority to provide an increased number of AP class offerings as well as additional support to students over the past several years. Many of our students also choose to participate in Dual Enrollment for college credit while in high school. Whether taking AP courses or Dual Enrollment classes, our students participating in these courses will leave high school with an advantage as they move forward after graduation."
Both Heritage and Rockdale were recognized in the AP Access and Support and the AP STEM categories. Rockdale County High School was also recognized in the AP Merit and AP STEM Achievement categories.
Advanced Placement classes and exams are administered by the College Board, which also administers the SAT. AP classes offer rigorous college-level learning opportunities to students in high school. Students who earn a three, four or five on the AP exams may receive college credit. RCPS offers AP courses at every high school, including the Rockdale Career Academy and Virtual Campus. Examples of courses include: U.S. History, World History, Economics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Calculus, Statistics, American Literature, World Literature and Art.
Definitions of each category provided by the Georgia Department of Education are:
AP Access and Support Schools - Schools with at least 30% of their 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 Merit Schools - Schools with at least 20% of the student population taking AP exams and at least 50% of all
AP exams earning scores of three (3) or higher
AP STEM Schools - Schools with students testing in at least two (2) AP math courses and two (2) AP science courses (AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics B, AP Physics C, AP Computer Science)
AP STEM Achievement Schools - Schools with students testing in at least 2 AP math courses and 2 AP science courses and at least 40% of the exam scores on AP math and AP science exams earning scores of three (3) or higher.
