Nine public schools in Henry County have been cited by the Georgia Department of Education for exceptional student performance in Advanced Placement courses, according to a statement released by the local district.
The designation as an AP Honor School is based on testing data for the 2020 senior class, and at least one Henry County high school earned AP Honors in five of the eight recognized categories: AP Access and Support, AP Humanities, AP Humanities Achievement, AP STEM, and AP STEM Achievement. Seven of the schools honored received recognition for more than one category.
Dutchtown, Eagle’s Landing, Hampton, Luella, McDonough, Stockbridge, and Woodland high schools, along with the Academy for Advanced Studies, earned AP Honor Roll status as AP Access and Support Schools. This represents one more high school in the district earning this honor when compared to the previous year’s data. AP Access and Support Schools are schools with at least 30 percent of their AP exams taken by students who identify as black and/or Hispanic, and 30 percent of all AP exams earning scores of 3 or higher. Only 84 schools in the state earned this honor, according to district officials.
“Last school year was a unique challenge for everyone with regards to COVID-19,” said Union Grove principal Ryan Meeks, whose school earned a total of four AP honors this year. “Our seniors were committed to wrapping up their school career with high academic achievement marks, and the latest recognition for our school speaks to the incredible focus of both the students and their teachers. We are thankful to be able to celebrate these AP honors once again.”
The AP Humanities designation was earned by Ola and Union Grove, which means they had a minimum of five students testing in all of the following AP courses: at least one ELA course, two history/social sciences courses, one fine arts course, and one world language course. There were 75 schools in the state earning this honor.
Ola and Union Grove also earned recognition as AP Humanities Achievement schools, a newer AP Honors category. Ola also earned this honor in 2020, the first year it was recognized. It means both schools met the requirements of the AP Humanities honor and at least 50 percent of all AP Humanities exams had scores of three or higher. Only 65 Georgia high schools did this.
Seven schools – Dutchtown, Eagle’s Landing, Luella, Ola, Stockbridge, Union Grove, and Woodland high schools – were named AP STEM schools. This also represents a one-school increase in the number of schools earning this honor when looking at the previous year’s data. AP STEM Schools are 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). There were 175 high schools earning this status.
AP STEM Achievement status was garnered by three schools in Henry County. Eagle’s Landing, Luella, and Union Grove high schools met the requirements that each school had a minimum of five students testing in at least four AP STEM courses, and at least 50 percent of all AP STEM exams taken earned scores of 3 or higher. A total of 100 schools in Georgia were named AP STEM Achievement schools.
“In a school year that will be mostly remembered for working through a pandemic, our Class of 2020 made sure that their hard work would pay off,” said district superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis. “The announcement of our district’s AP Honor schools is just one remarkable example of the tenacity of a class that will surely be remembered for their incredible achievements in the classroom. We could not be prouder of our students and teachers for these incredible academic honors.”
