A national program that encourages high school students to enroll in advanced placement classes to allow students to qualify for college course credits is now in place at a fifth Oahu public school: Kailua’s Kalaheo High.
The school launched the National Math and Science Initiative’s Comprehensive AP Program on Monday thanks to a $112,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity to expand its AP courses.
UPWARD TREND Tests show positive increases in the four high
schools (Campbell, Leilehua, Mililani and Radford) in
the National Math and Science Initiative
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Source: Department of Education; National Math
and Science Initiative
Principal Susan Hummel said the grant will be used to support Kalaheo High’s AP courses in English literature, English language, calculus and biology. The school also plans to add an AP environmental science course in the 2014-15 school year.
Offering the course is ideal with the state’s call to protect the environment and endangered species and the school’s proximity to Kawainui Marsh and the ocean, Hummel said. "We see it as a natural laboratory," she said.
Fifty-five students have signed up for the course so far. "I truly believe we’re raising a new generation of students who are interested in the environment," she added.
NMSI is geared toward supporting schools with students from military families. Twenty-three percent to 25 percent of students at Kalaheo High are from military families.
Other Hawaii schools running the comprehensive AP program in recent years to boost college-readiness are Campbell, Leilehua, Mililani and Radford high schools.
Kalaheo High’s start of the comprehensive AP program marked College Readiness Week in Hawaii. The state Department of Education also released data Monday that showed a significant increase in students at Campbell, Leilehua, Mililani and Radford taking AP exams and receiving qualifying scores because of the schools’ partnership with NMSI.
The schools showed a 65 percent combined increase in the number of students taking an AP math, science and English exam over a two-year period from the 2010-11 school year, according to the latest data from DOE and NMSI. There also was an 89 percent increase in receiving a qualifying score of 3 or higher on an AP exam, which means they qualify for college-level credit.
At Mililani High, Principal Fred Murphy said the program has certainly boosted participation in AP courses as well as more students with qualifying AP scores since the launch of the program.
"More students are motivated to try AP courses," said Murphy. "We have more students taking it for the first time and more students taking multiple classes as well." He reported that the number of students receiving a qualifying score of 3 or higher on AP exams has doubled.
