Pennsbury Named to 10th Annual AP District Honor Roll

Posted onAuthorJennifer Neill

Pennsbury is one of 250 school dis­tricts in the U.S. and Canada being hon­ored by the College Board with place­ment on the 10th Annual AP® District Honor Roll!  To be includ­ed on the Honor Roll, Pennsbury had to increase the num­ber of stu­dents par­tic­i­pat­ing in AP (since 2017) while also increas­ing or main­tain­ing the per­cent­age of stu­dents earn­ing AP Exam scores of 3 or high­er. Reaching these goals shows that Pennsbury is suc­cess­ful­ly iden­ti­fy­ing moti­vat­ed, academically-prepared stu­dents who are ready for AP.

National data from 2019 show that among American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander stu­dents with a high degree of readi­ness for AP, only about half are par­tic­i­pat­ing. The first step to get­ting more of these stu­dents to par­tic­i­pate is to give them access. Courses must be made avail­able, gate­keep­ing must stop, and doors must be opened equi­tably. Pennsbury is com­mit­ted to expand­ing the avail­abil­i­ty of AP cours­es among pre­pared and moti­vat­ed stu­dents of all backgrounds.

“With more stu­dents par­tic­i­pat­ing and suc­ceed­ing in AP in this District, more stu­dents are get­ting a head start on col­lege by earn­ing col­lege cred­it dur­ing high school,” said Trevor Packer, senior vice pres­i­dent of AP and Instruction at the College Board. “We are pleased to hon­or the teach­ers and admin­is­tra­tors who have worked to clear a path for more stu­dents of all back­grounds to advance through AP.” 

Helping more stu­dents learn at a high­er lev­el and earn high­er AP scores is an objec­tive of all mem­bers of the AP com­mu­ni­ty, from AP teach­ers to District and school admin­is­tra­tors to col­lege pro­fes­sors. Many dis­tricts are exper­i­ment­ing with ini­tia­tives and strate­gies to see how they can expand access and improve stu­dent per­for­mance at the same time.

In 2019, more than 4,000 col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties around the world received AP scores for col­lege cred­it, advanced place­ment, or both, and/or con­sid­er­a­tion in the admis­sions process. Inclusion in the 10th Annual AP District Honor Roll is based on a review of three years of AP data, from 2017 to 2019, look­ing across 38 AP Exams, includ­ing world lan­guage and culture.

For inclu­sion on the 10th Annual AP District Honor Roll, dis­tricts must meet the fol­low­ing criteria:

  • Increase participation/access to AP by at least 4% in large dis­tricts, at least 6% in medi­um dis­tricts, and at least 11% in small districts;
  • Increase or main­tain the per­cent­age of American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander stu­dents tak­ing exams and increase or main­tain the per­cent­age of American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander stu­dents scor­ing 3+ on at least one AP Exam; and
  • Improve or main­tain per­for­mance lev­els when com­par­ing the 2019 per­cent­age of stu­dents scor­ing a 3 or high­er to the 2017 per­cent­age, unless the dis­trict has already attained a per­for­mance lev­el at which more than 70% of its AP stu­dents earn a 3 or higher.

The com­plete 10th Annual AP District Honor Roll can be found here:  https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/awards/district-honor-roll