Summit students get leg up on college
Photo By Doug Livingston | The News Outlet
Michael Phillips, 17, studies for a test in his Advanced Placement psychology class at Hudson High School. Last year, Phillips was one of 503 Hudson students who took advantage of the AP program, which provides college credit from a high school classroom.
Published Tuesday, January 3, 2012, in The Akron Beacon Journal
By Caitlin Cook and Doug Livingston
THENEWSOUTLET.ORG
Senior Michael Phillips is taking five Advanced Placement courses at Hudson High School. And he could earn up to 25 college credits from those AP courses, giving him a head start on a bachelor’s degree and an advantage over other college applicants.
Phillips, who has set his sights on competitive colleges like Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown and University of Virginia, said he wants the best education possible.
“That’s what Hudson’s been all about for me,” Phillips said.
He’s grateful for his high school’s expansive AP program and knows that there are school districts in Summit County that offer less.
“It makes it harder for kids to get in (to college), as opposed to kids who have had the benefit of taking all AP,” he said.
Phillips and thousands of other Summit County students take AP courses from their high school classrooms. A passing score on an AP test often translates into college credit, at a fraction of the college price.
“In some regards, I guess the college credit is a benefit,” Phillips said. “But I think I’m taking them more so because our school supports people who really want to learn more than just the average class.”
A study by ProPublica, a national reporting organization, found that Ohio school districts with more than 3,000 students offer seven AP classes on average. That lags behind the national average of 8.35.
But Summit County is outperforming the state and national averages.
Type the name of your school district in below to see how your high school’s AP offering sacks up against other districts and counties. Information for this database was taken from the Ohio Department of Education and the U.S. Census Bureau.
The county’s high schools are averaging 10 AP classes each. Neighboring Portage County averages four AP classes per high school. Mahoning and Trumbull Counties fall even further behind, each offering fewer than two AP classes per high school.
The Hudson school district offers the most with 19 AP courses; Revere offers 16 and Copley-Fairlawn has 15 AP classes each. Norton, Woodridge and Northwest offer six. Manchester and Coventry have the fewest with four.
Jennifer Horner, a guidance counselor at Coventry, said finances and low enrollments are the main reasons why her high school doesn’t offer more AP courses.
With Coventry having 2,000 fewer students than Hudson, adding an AP section there isn’t as feasible, Horner said.
“That means you’re putting more kids in another class, and we’re always real tight on staff because of budgets,” Horner said, explaining that only 25 students took AP courses in 2010.
The district moved the freshman class into the high school this year. Horner said that with more students and teachers in the building, the school hopes to offer more AP classes in the future.
Difficult decisions
College Board Vice President Trevor Packer said he understands the issue of not having enough teachers or funds to offer a diverse curriculum.
“If the school has a small number of students, (It) has to choose, ‘Are we going to allocate a teacher to teach an AP section or a non-AP section?’” Packer said.
Packer and the College Board administer the AP program nationally. Teachers and principals design an AP curriculum and then propose the program to the College Board, which passes the course curriculum onto college professors across the country for approval.
The organization of nearly 6,000 colleges, universities and high schools is funded almost entirely by AP exam fees.
High schools retain $8 from the $87 student exam fee to curb material and training expenses for teachers, which range from a $1,500 online workshop to thousands of dollars in college courses that prepare a high school teacher to instruct AP classes.
The federal government picks up AP exam fees for students in the free or reduced lunch program.
While some districts like Hudson, which benefits from the lowest poverty rate in Summit County, excel in offering AP, educators say funding and staffing are the biggest barriers in districts like Coventry, where more families hover just above the poverty line, according to U.S. Census data.
“All of these things make it incredibly difficult for these schools to build incremental rigor across grade levels so that students are ready for AP and teachers are eager to provide AP,” Packer said.
“The school is dealing with a set of challenges that keep teachers from believing that students are ready for the challenge of a college course offered in high school,” he added. “AP just seems too unattainable.”
Coventry won’t be expanding its AP program next year because the “AP testing scores have not been very good,” Horner said. “That will be two years now that we haven’t added.”
Although Coventry’s AP offerings are slim and AP test scores are not as high as Horner would like, the high school does offer a subsidized post-secondary program. The school district picks up tuition costs for students who travel to the University of Akron and Stark State College in Jackson Township to take college courses while still high school students. The students pay for parking, travel expenses and orientation.
“We really try to tell each of the families, ‘it really depends on the student,’ but I think for a lot of our kids that struggle financially, it is because (post-secondary) is guaranteed free,” Horner said. “With the AP, yeah they’re going to get the rigor. But at the end, if the student ultimately can’t produce the score, they’re not getting the college credit.”
At Kent State University, an AP exam score of three or better will transfer into college credit. Hiram College requires a score of four or five.
Role in admissions
AP completion also factors into college admission, but Sherman Dean, director of admissions at Hiram College, cautions against penalizing students who haven’t taken AP classes.
“Some schools don’t offer AP, so that wouldn’t be fair to them,” Dean said.
Along with gaining college credit, educators tout that rigorous AP classwork can separate the average student from one who may be accepted into a college’s honors program.
Dale Mugler, dean of the University of Akron’s Honors Program, said taking an AP class “really does make a difference.”
Mugler accepted 370 college freshmen into the university’s honors program this semester. More than half entered with college credit from high school AP classes.
Admissions officers at Kent State University use success in AP classes as a way to gage a student’s willingness to learn and not as a final determination for admission.
“I look at it as a student is really prepared or trying to prepare for the next level,” Dean said. “For some [high] schools it’s a positive if have that opportunity.”
Packer said districts that typically foster a college-going atmosphere excel in offering college level courses.
Firestone High School Principal Larry Petry said his Akron school is one of those college-going institutions.
Firestone offers 13 AP classes, as well as other post-secondary options. When Petry introduces an AP class into the curriculum, he expects 10 to 12 students to enroll. After time, the section fills with college-bound students, he said.
“The students at Firestone are typically students who are upper level academic: kids who are looking for a good college, rigorous experience in high school, the ability to test out and get some credit beyond high school,” Petry said.
“The kids have created an atmosphere where it’s OK to do the AP. In fact, I think they try and do too many.”
TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Akron Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).
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