Leonardtown, Great Mills rank high in AP enrollment

Number of Chopticon High students in accelerated courses to double

Friday, June 19, 2009

Leonardtown and Great Mills high schools again appeared on the list, which highlights schools that have high participation in advanced placement classes and other accelerated courses.

Chopticon High School did not make the list, which is based on data from the 2007-2008 school year. Principal Garth Bowling, who took over from veteran educator Joe North this school year, said increasing the number of students taking AP classes was one of his goals.

"We're looking pretty good," Bowling said Thursday. "We have doubled our AP seats at Chopticon for the upcoming school year."

He said faculty, sports staff, parents and others have worked together to encourage more students to take AP courses.

"I think the kids are seeing the importance of taking AP classes," Bowling said.

While he inherited student schedules his first year as Chopticon's principal, he and his assistant principals and guidance counselors have worked to enroll more students next year, he said. Bowling said the school's staff will work to support all of the students in the advanced courses to be sure they are successful.

Great Mills, which ranked 1,057th on this year's list, created a course several years ago called advanced course support, which is an "enriched study hall," said Principal Tracey Heibel. Students must be in an honors or advanced placement course to enroll and they have access to teachers and resources to help with AP work. There is typically a waiting list for the class, Heibel said.

"Great Mills High School has always made it a practice to enroll as many kids in advanced placement classes as possible," Heibel said. "[Guidance counselors] aggressively enroll students in advanced placement classes."

The Challenge Index uses schools' rate of participation in college-level tests to show which schools best encourage students to take rigorous courses.

David O'Neill, principal of Leonardtown, said his school has had steady enrollment in AP courses over the last few years using various methods to determine which students have the potential to be successful in the advanced courses. Leonardtown ranked 825th on the list of best high schools out of more than 26,000 high schools in the nation.

Also, the enticement of earning college credit without having to pay for a college course along with college admission staff who look for rigorous coursework keeps student participation high, O'Neill said.

Both Great Mills and Leonardtown did drop to lower ranks this year compared to last year. But they remain among the top 6 percent of the nation's high schools, based on advanced coursework participation.

Leonardtown was ranked 342nd two years ago and 627th last year.

Great Mills' highest rank was in 2007 at 609; it ranked 907th last year.

Chopticon was not in the top list this year or last, although it was ranked 992nd in 2007.

Public schools are ranked according to a ratio, devised by Jay Mathews of The Washington Post, which is the number of advanced placement and/or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school divided by the number of graduating seniors. The scale does not take into account the number of students who get a passing score on the tests and is based on data from the previous year, in this case the 2008 – 2009 school year.

Because students can earn college credit from the courses at some colleges, many students once enrolled in college are able to graduate early, pursue a double major, or study abroad because of their high school enrollment in AP courses.

Five Charles County public high schools were listed on magazine's list of top U.S. high schools, including La Plata High School, the highest-ranked in Southern Maryland at 380th on the list.

Also ranking in the top 1,500 were Maurice J. McDonough High at 702, Henry E. Lackey High at 1,376, Thomas Stone High at 1,436 and Westlake High at 1,471.

In Calvert County, Huntingtown High School ranked 493, Patuxent High School ranked 542 and Northern High School ranked 1,068.

Maryland public schools ranked first in the nation in the percentage of high schools offering — and students taking — college-level courses, according to Newsweek. Maryland had the highest percentage of high schools on the list (29.5 percent), more than five points better than the second-place state, Virginia. Maryland has 83 schools among the top schools on the Challenge Index.

"Our goal is to have our high schools offer a challenging curriculum to all of our students," said Maryland Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.  "This new research gives us more evidence that we are making a difference for our students, but we won't be satisfied until those opportunities are available to everyone."

jyeatman@somdnews.com