St. Clair’s Moody High School, St. Clair County High School and now Ashville High School are recipients of the A+ College Ready Advanced Placement grant program. St. Clair County’s board and Superintendent Jenny Seals have expressed that they are very excited to have these programs in three schools and hope to see it expand even more.

Advanced Placement (AP) classes are rigorous and highly challenging courses. These AP classes allow students to learn college level information in a high school setting. At the end of the course students are granted the opportunity to exhibit learned skills through an exam. The exam is then graded, and passing scores can receive college credit.

This test is used throughout the United States and is accepted at most colleges. It not only provides college credits at no cost, but it challenges students and helps them be competitive with peers not only in the United States but internationally as well.

Because of its value, the A+ program is a highly sought after grant that can increase the merit of all schools who use it. Seals and the District Leadership team assisted all high schools in the A+ grant application process because of the importance of getting AP.

During the site visits in December, the A+ College Ready Grant Team was looking for very specific indicators of readiness and data to determine if a school was a good candidate for this funding. The A+ Team met with the Leadership Team and all administrators involved before and after the site visits. Seals and the Leadership Team expressed enthusiasm and extreme interest in getting all schools into the program.

After some deliberation, Ashville was selected to receive full AP implementation funding. While Ragland did not receive full funding, they received financial support from the team to train teachers. Ragland will be offering pre-AP courses for 2014-2015. Seals also agreed to fund teacher training at Springville High so that the school can explore options and make some opportunities in the fall. Both Springville and Ragland will be eligible to reapply for the full funding during the next grant cycle.

Ashville High School will receive $80,000 in funding to train and compensate teachers, update lab equipment and technology and provide study sessions and mock exams for students.  Principal Patti Johnson is very excited and has her faculty very enthusiastic to start this new journey.

Johnson said that she sought out the grant because the school has a higher rate of free and reduced lunch. And though Dual Enrollment is offered at the school for college credits, it is often too expensive. Johnson said that she believes that the AP program will be a challenging and rewarding alternative.

Ashville will be offering AP Language, AP Literature, AP Biology, AP Environmental Science and AP Calculus. Johnson listed what she is looking forward to most. “One, it is going to offer a lot of professional development for our teachers. Secondly, it means college credit for our students.”

State Superintendent Dr. Thomas Bice is encouraging all counties in Alabama to implement programs such as A+.  Bice has challenged the schools in the state to graduate all students college and career ready.

 These readiness indicators in his PLAN 2020, which require schools to develop a four year plan for students in high school, include the following: career credentials achieved through career tech courses (Eden Career Tech); post-secondary credit while in high school (Dual Enrollment, Early College, AP Credit); and achievement on assessments such as the ACT, AP, and Work Keys. The aligned assessments like Aspire (grades 3-8), Explore (grade 8), and Plan (grade 10) are all leading up to the ACT that all juniors will take in the state of Alabama.

According to Bice, more rigorous courses like AP will help students score higher on these tests. Using data from these tests, schools can better determine the most challenging and appropriate course path for grades 9-12 students as they all prepare to be ready for college and career opportunities.  Ultimately these changes in how schools develop a student’s four-year plan will provide St. Clair County with a better and more qualified workforce in the future.