Shoreline honored on Advanced Placement Achievement List by College Board

Shoreline is one of 388 school districts in the nation and just six in Washington state recognized by the College Board with a place on its Advanced Placement Achievement List.

The list honors districts for opening AP classroom doors to a significantly broader pool of students, while maintaining or improving the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher.

The District Honor Roll is based on examination of three years of AP data: 2008, 2009, and 2010, from all students who took AP Examinations in May of those years.

Within the three-year analysis, inclusion on the list is based on the following criteria:

• Increase in participation in/access to AP by at least 4 percent in large districts, at least 7 percent in medium districts and at least 11 percent in small districts;
• A steady or increasing percentage of exams taken by African American, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native students; and
• Performance levels maintained at 70 percent of AP students scoring a 3 or higher.

From 2008 to 2010, Shoreline has increased the number of students participating in AP from 474 to 552, while maintaining 70 percent or more of students earning AP Exam scores of 3 or higher, the score typically needed to earn college credit.  Shorecrest offers 14 AP courses and Shorewood 13.

The College Board's Advanced Placement Program enables students to pursue college-level studies while still in high school. Through these college-level courses, each culminating in a rigorous exam, AP provides willing and academically prepared students with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement or both.

Taking AP courses also demonstrates to college admission officers that students have sought the most rigorous curriculum available to them. Each AP teacher's syllabus is evaluated and approved by college faculty from some of the nation's leading institutions, and AP Exams are developed and scored by college faculty and experienced AP teachers.

AP is accepted by more than 3,800 colleges and universities worldwide for college credit, advanced placement or both on the basis of successful AP Exam scores. This includes over 90 percent of four-year institutions in the United States. In 2010, 1.8 million students representing more than 17,000 schools around the world, both public and nonpublic, took 3.2 million AP Exams.

"These districts are living proof that when access to AP is provided for the range and breadth of prepared and motivated students, districts can achieve even higher learning outcomes for their students, and the opportunity for so many more to earn college credit and placement, than when AP opportunities were restricted to a smaller segment of the high school population," said Trevor Packer, vice president of the Advanced Placement Program at the College Board.

The complete AP Achievement List can be found here.

--Shoreline School District