RCPS high schools named AP Honor Schools

Rockdale County Public Schools (RCPS) high schools – Heritage and Rockdale County – were named 2020 Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Schools by State School Superintendent Richard Woods, a distinction RCPS high schools have achieved for more than 10 consecutive years.

Superintendent Terry Oatts said, “I congratulate our AP Honor High Schools for their commitment to expanding AP course offerings and participation across all disciplines while simultaneously increasing AP exam achievement among all students. As a district, we are expanding our AP course offerings at each of our high schools as we are committed to facilitating optimal student learning, achievement, and growth, in part, by affording more students opportunities to pursue curricular options that challenge and enable them to obtain both high school and college credit for rigorous coursework.”

Heritage High School and Rockdale County High School were recognized in the AP STEM Schools category.

Rockdale County High School was recognized in the AP STEM Achievement category.

Heritage High School and Rockdale County High School were recognized in the AP Access and Support category.

Advanced Placement classes and exams are administered by the College Board, which also administers the SAT. AP classes offer rigorous college-level learning opportunities to students in high school. Students who earn a 3, 4 or 5 on the AP exams may receive college credit. RCPS offers AP courses at every high school, including the Rockdale Career Academy and Rockdale Virtual Campus. Examples of courses include: U.S. History, World History, Economics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Calculus, Statistics, Computer Science, American Literature, World Literature and Art.

Definitions of each category provided by the Georgia Department of Education are:

AP Access and Support Schools – Schools with at least 30 percent of AP exams taken by students who identified themselves as African-American and/or Hispanic and 30 percent of all AP exams earning scores of 3 or higher.

AP Challenge Schools – Schools with enrollments of 900 or fewer students and students testing in English, math, science, and social studies.

AP Schools of Distinction – Schools with at least 20 percent of the total student population taking AP exams and at least 50 percent of all AP exams earning scores of 3 or higher.

AP Expansion Schools – AP schools with 25 percent growth in AP participation from May 2018 to May 2019 and a minimum of 25 students testing in May 2018.

AP Humanities Schools – Schools with a minimum of five students testing in each of the following AP categories: one ELA course, two history/social science courses, one fine arts course and one world language course.

AP Humanities Achievement Schools – AP Humanities schools (see above definition) with at least 50 percent of all AP Humanities exams earning scores of 3 or higher.

AP STEM Schools – Schools with a minimum of five students testing in at least four AP STEM courses (AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics 1, AP Physics 2, AP Physics C, AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles).

AP STEM Achievement Schools – AP STEM schools (see above definition) with at least 50 percent of all AP STEM exams earning scores of 3 or higher.