UPDATE: Manassas Park Schools Make AP District Honor Roll

Manassas Park City Schools is one of 367 school divisions in the U.S. and Canada to be placed on the Annual AP District Honor Roll, College Board announced this week.

 The division earned the honor for its significant gains in Advanced Placement access and student performance, according to officials from College Board, the agency that compiles  the list.

 An additional factor in a school division making the list is increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on AP Exams. The majority of U.S. colleges and universities grant college credit or advanced placement for a score of 3 or above on AP Exams.

 The Second Annual AP Honor Roll is made up of only those school districts that are simultaneously expanding opportunity and improving performance, College Board officials said.

 Dr. Bruce McDade, superintendent of Manassas Park City Schools, discussed the divison’s accomplishment in making the list with City Council at Tuesday’s meeting.

“(It) came as a complete surprise to us,” he told council. “We're one of eight school districts in the Commonwealth to be recognized.”

 Manassas Park is the only division Virginia to make the College Board’s Honor Roll with 30 percent or greater enrollment of American Indians, African American and Hispanic/Latino students, as well as 30 percent or greater enrollment of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch.

 "Participation in college-level AP courses can level the playing field for underserved students, give them the confidence needed to succeed in college, and raise standards and performance in key subjects like science and math," College Board President Gaston Caperton said in a press release. "The AP Honor Roll districts are defying expectations by expanding access while enabling their students to maintain or improve their AP Exam scores."

 “We are thrilled to be recognized for our efforts to increase Advanced Placement (AP) opportunity and performance at Manassas Park High School,” McDade wrote in an email after receiving the news.  “This is a feat that is not accomplished overnight.  It takes many years of hard work on behalf of teachers, students and parents, not only at the high school, but at the lower grades as well.  The recognition speaks to our efforts to work collaboratively across the division to increase academic rigor for all students.  To be named to the AP District Honor Roll is a significant achievement and one that makes us all very proud.”

Manassas Park High Principal Eric Doyle along with his counterpart at the middle school Eric Neff, sent a special congratulations to the faculty and staff of both schools.

Doyle said success in high school begins in middle school. "We are a secondary campus of dedicated educators seeking to improve student achievement one student at a time ... we are proud of our students and this community that supports education," he said.

Since 2009, the secondary campus of Manassas Park City Schools has increased the number of students participating in the AP program by 22 percent, from 113 to 138, Neff said.

Additionally, the participating students obtaining a 3 or higher rating on the AP tests has increased from 22 percent in 2009 to 36 percent in 2011, he added.

Criteria for inclusion on the College Board Second Annual AP District Honor Roll

1) Examination of three years of AP data, from 2009 to 2011;

2) Increase in participation in/access to AP by at least 4 percent in large districts, at least 6 percent in medium districts and at least 11 percent in small districts;

3) A steady or increasing percentage of exams taken by African American, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native students; and

4) Performance levels maintained or improved when comparing the percentage of students in 2011 scoring a 3 or higher to those in 2009, or the school has already attained a performance level in which more than 70 percent of the AP students are scoring a 3 or higher.

School districts in which low-income and/or underrepresented minority students (African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native) comprise 50 percent or more of the AP student population have been highlighted on the Second Annual AP District Honor Roll to recognize significant improvements in equity and quality among the nation’s historically underserved student populations.

The complete Second Annual AP District Honor Roll can be found at collegeboard.org.

 The Virginia School Board Association also recognized Manassas Park City Schools as being “certified green,” McDade told council Tuesday.

 In other school news to council, the superintendent shared a letter that he received from U.S. Congressman Frank Wolf. McDade said he wrote to Wolf to express his view that No Child Left Behind Laws needed to be changed.

He explained that the reports should end since it's goals were infeasible. Wolf wrote back telling him he would speak to  U.S. Congressman John Kline, Chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee to discuss drafting a bill.

McDade also discussed the need for changing how the schools received funding. He explained that there are officially 3,044 students serviced by the school system. That number includes home school students and pre-Kindergarten students. But the schools only received funding for the 2,883, the Average Daily Membership (ADM) of students that attend school everyday. He explained that as the school year expands, the number gets smaller.