COLUMBIA – Richland County School District Two is one of only 3 school districts in the state to be named to the College Board’s 10th Annual AP® District Honor Roll for significant gains in student access and success in AP testing.
Only 250 districts in the United States and Canada were named to the list.
To be included, R2 had to, since 2017, increase the number of students participating in AP classes while also increasing or maintaining the percentage of students earning AP Exam scores of 3 or higher.
“Reaching these goals shows that this district is successfully identifying motivated, academically prepared students who are ready for AP,” Dr. Baron R. Davis, Richland Two superintendent said. “Our responsibility is to give our students access to a high-quality, rigorous academic career. As a district, our focus is on consistently pushing the bar to give them the opportunity to find their pathways to purpose.”
Inclusion 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. To make the AP Honor Roll, districts must increase, improve and maintain AP participation and performance by certain percentages as well as achieve these outcomes among an AP student population in which 30 percent or more are underrepresented minority students and 30 percent or more are low-income students (those qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch).
“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
Richland Two has expanded access to the AP program at Blythewood and Ridge View high schools, through those schools’ participation in the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) College Readiness Program. Both schools AP scores increased significantly this year. In the 2019–2020 school year, the district is including Spring Valley and Westwood high schools in the NMSI program.
“With NMSI at four of our high schools and the International Baccalaureate program at Richland Northeast, a majority of students in our high schools will have the opportunity to take advanced courses.”
The complete 10th Annual AP District Honor Roll can be found here: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/awards/district-honor-roll
