Melrose Public Schools Earn Spot on AP Honor Roll

Superintendent Cyndy Taymore has announced that the Melrose Public Schools earned a place on the Sixth Annual Advanced Placement District Honor Roll.

The school district earned the honor for expanding access to AP courses while simultaneously increasing the number of students earning scores of three or higher on the exams.

This achievement indicates that the Melrose School District successfully identified, motivated and academically prepared students for AP classes.

Inclusion on the Sixth Annual AP District Honor Roll is based on the examination of three years of AP data, from 2013 to 2015, looking across 34 AP Exams, including world language and culture.

“Our goal is to give every student who is interested in taking an AP course the opportunity to do so during their high school career,” Taymore said in a statement. “Now more than ever, we see students placing value on AP courses to prepare for college, diversify their course load and challenge themselves.”

To earn a spot on this year’s honor roll, districts had to:

• Increase participation/access to AP by at least four percent in large districts, at least six percent in medium districts and at least 11 percent in small districts

• Expand or maintain the percentage of exams taken by black/African American, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native students

• Improve or maintain performance levels when comparing the 2015 percentage of students scoring a three or higher to the 2013 percentage, unless the district had already attained a performance level at which more than 70 percent of its AP students were scoring a three or higher.

Melrose is one of the 425 school districts across that were honored this year. You can view the complete list here.

In addition, eight members of the Melrose High School staff were named Partners in Excellence by Mass Insight as a result of their work improving students’ scores on the recent AP exams. Recognized teachers include Christina Cardella, Laurie Greenwood, Tanja Hiti-Stearns, Heather MacDonald, Brittney Martin, Nancy Naslas, Kerri Scott and Suzanne Troy. They will be honored at a ceremony in April 2016, and are among the 54 Massachusetts teachers who have earned this distinction.