Schools
NASD Named an AP District of the Year
Nazareth Area School District -- for the second-straight year -- has been named an AP District of the Year. Nazareth is one of 37 such districts in Pennsylvania and 539 nationwide.
Because of its Advanced Placement achievements, Nazareth Area School District thinks it has earned bragging rights.
Its crowning achievement -- and for the second-straight year -- is being named an AP District of the Year. Nazareth is one of 37 such districts in Pennsylvania and 539 nationwide.
”There’s a lot of districts we hear about in Lehigh and Northampton counties … they’re not on this,” high school principal Alan Davis told the school board Monday night, taking a page out of the Rodney Dangerfield I-don’t-get-no-respect view of things.
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The board honored AP students and teachers at its meeting and many of them were present to exchange congratulatory handshakes with board members.
One name that again popped up was Colin Henderson, one of three Blue Eagles in the National AP Scholars category for 2011-2012. The scholars received an average score of at least a 4 (on a 0-5 scale, with 5 as the highest) on all AP exams taken and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams.
Find out what's happening in Nazarethwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The other scholars -- John Martin and Matthew Rohn -- graduated in June.
The board honored Henderson, a senior, in October for being a National Merit Semifinalist -- the first such scholar the high school has had in five or six years, Davis told the board at the time.
The high school currently offers 14 AP courses (there are two English Language and Composition classes, and a Microeconomics course is offered every other year). New courses this year are Environmental Science (taught by Michelle Schoeneberger) and AP Spanish (taught by Olga Tcherviakova).
Students who score a 3 or higher on AP exams can earn college credit, Davis said.
According to material from the CollegeBoard, the AP districts of the year “simultaneously achieved increases in access to AP courses for a broader number of students and improved the rate at which their AP students earned scores of 3 or higher on an AP exam.”
Davis offered more statistics: In the 2009-2010 school year, 104 Nazareth High students were in AP courses; last year, the number was 160. In the 2007-2008 school year, 78 percent of the AP students scored a 3 or higher on their exams; last year, 89 percent scored a 3 or higher.
Check Nazareth Patch Saturday morning for the full list of AP Scholars and teachers recognized at Monday's school board meeting.
