North Plainfield is one of 547 districts across the country, and among 33 in New Jersey, named by The College Board to its 5th annual District Honor Roll for increasing the number of students accessing Advanced Placement courses, while also maintaining or increasing the percentage of students who earn scores of 3 or higher on AP exams.
Reaching these goals indicates that districts are successfully identifying motivated, academically prepared students who are likely to benefit from rigorous AP course work. In North Plainfield’s case, the district instituted a Summer College Readiness Program; a Concurrent Enrollment program with Raritan Valley Community College; and offered Accuplacer Testing to all interested students in the effort to encourage students to take AP and Honors courses.
Data from 2014 show that among African American, Hispanic, and Native American students with a high degree of readiness for AP, only about half participate in the rigorous AP classes, because their schools do not always offer the AP course for which they have potential. The districts named to the Honor Roll are committed to expanding the availability of AP courses among prepared and motivated students of all backgrounds.
Helping more students learn at a higher level and earn higher AP scores is an objective of all members of the AP community, from AP teachers to district and school administrators to college professors. Many districts are experimenting with a variety of initiatives and strategies to determine how to simultaneously expand access and improve student performance.
Approximately 30 New Jersey school districts were also named to the honor roll. In addition to North Plainfield, they include the following: Bordentown Regional; Brick Township; Bridgewater-Raritan Regional; Burlington Township; Delsea Regional; Freehold Regional District; Glen Ridge; Hackensack; Hanover Park Regional; Highland Park; Hunterdon Central Regional; Jackson Township; Keansburg; Kingsway Regional; Kittatinny Regional; Lawrence Township; Mahwah Township; Middlesex County Vocational Technical; Northern Burlington County Regional; Old Bridge Township; Orange; Park Ridge; Passaic County Vocational Technical; Passaic Valley Regional; Pitman; Rutherford; Somerset Hills; South Brunswick; South Plainfield; Union County Vocational Technical; West Essex Regional; West Morris Regional; and Woodstown-Pilesgrove.
Information
Contact: Dr. James V. McLaughlin, superintendent, [email protected]
Named to The College Board’s District Honor Roll