AP Exam Time Kicks Off at DMPS High Schools

Jean Schwendau, the College Board’s 2016 AP Teacher of the Year, works with students in her biology class at North High School.

The yearlong countdown is over and this morning DMPS student test pilots begin taking off on their missions of more than 2,400 AP exams in the next two weeks.

It’s not rocket science, just 31 other disciplines ranging from American history to English literature to Chinese, German and Italian cultures; biology to psychology to geography; music theory to studio art.

New this year is AP Computer Science. Next year the menu will pass Baskin-Robbins in its breadth of academic flavor when it expands to 33 with the addition of AP Seminar, an inter-disciplinary course, and AP Spanish Literature.

Tim Walljasper teaches AP Computer Science at East. AP is challenging for teachers too.

“Each teacher attends an AP training session in the summer prior to the first year of teaching an AP course,” he said, adding that he plans to attend another training workshop this summer in Houston offered by Code.org.

“My students and I have enjoyed going through the curriculum for the new AP Computer Science Principles course this year, supported by high quality, interactive materials from Code.org. As part of their overall AP exam score, students are tasked with creating a working program. Many students are developing creative choose-your-own-adventure style games including quiz games, dice games, and baseball.”

Amber Graeber is the district’s Advanced Placement Coordinator. She’s excited about the expansion into computer science.

“It’s an introductory course and only requires the completion of Algebra 1,” she said. “This is cool because it gets more kids into the field and is an accessible AP course in an area of study not widely offered.”

May can be a difficult month to stay focused on academics as the outdoors and the finish line beckon, but students who have challenged themselves throughout the year rise to this culmination.

“This time of the year can feel stressful for kids and teachers because everyone wants students to perform their best on the exams,” said Graeber. “But teachers prepare students over the course of the year for this.”

Overall, 61% of nearly 4,000 AP course enrollments districtwide led to AP exam registrations come springtime. Regardless of the outcomes, the courses and the exams represent sneak previews of college-level work and research indicates that even students who fail to earn college credit with their AP exam scores still graduate from college at higher rates than students who never take either an AP course or exam.

Because by the time they get to the rarefied college atmosphere, they’re already used to the altitude.

The following chart shows the number of enrollments in Advanced Placement courses as well as the number of AP Exam registrations at each DMPS high school.