PETERS TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS

SEPTEMBER 6 First Day of School for Students 14 High School Open House 29 Middle School Open House

DECEMBER 23-31 No School, Winter Break

FEBRUARY 20 No School, Presidents’ Day

MAY 29 No School, Memorial Day

70 Peters Township

Setting goals is as important for teachers as it is for students. Last year, the teachers at Peters Township High School set a goal of expanding an already successful Advanced Placement program. A daunting task for a program that was already counted among the highest performing in the state, but an important shift in the way both students and teachers would approach these challenging courses.

Peters Township offers 21 Advanced Placement( AP) course options for students, ranging from Calculus to World Languages, from Physics to English Language and Composition, and everything in between. Students who challenge themselves with these courses have the option to take a national exam at the end of the school year that could earn them college credit with scores of 3, 4, or 5 on the exam.

Students taking these classes at PTHS have always boasted an incredible success rate, with many being named National AP Scholars for their efforts. So how do you make it better?

“ The change for us was in our approach to AP,” said Principal Lori Pavlik.“ We had a proven formula for our students and we knew that taking these courses provided benefits for them at the college level, both in terms of credits and in preparedness for the harder course load. The goal was simple – we wanted more students in the program.”

Last summer, the District also partnered with the National Math and Science Initiative( NMSI). NMSI is a national nonprofit organization that supports districts in developing college readiness through improving teacher effectiveness and student performance in critical subjects of science, technology, engineering and math. Through this $ 1.2 million grant, students enrolled in math, science, technology, and English AP courses receive additional support with extra tutoring sessions, administration / scoring of mock AP Exams and supplemental Saturday Study Sessions.

As an added bonus, NMSI subsidizes half the fee of the AP Exam and provides monetary incentives of $ 100.00 per AP Exam score of 5 and $ 50.00 per AP Exam score of 4 in the participating AP courses.

“ Working with NMSI has helped an already distinguished AP program here at Peters,” added teacher Susan Canfield, who teaches calculus at the High School.“ Our pre-AP teachers at Peters do a phenomenal job of laying the foundation for the students who end up taking the AP courses. We already had results that were among the best in the state and country but our teachers and students were able to increase participation and results with the help of NMSI’ s people and resources.”

And the results speak for themselves. In 2016, Peters Township High School ranked 4th in the state in AP Math scores, 6th in the state in AP Science scores and 5th in the state in AP English scores.

In 2016, 180 students were recognized as AP Scholars at various levels, a 17 % increase over 2015 scores. AP Scholars are students who scored completed three or more AP Exams with scores of three or higher.( See next page for complete AP Scholar results.) In terms of total tests taken, Peters saw an increase in just one year from 812 tests in 2015 to 1,062 tests taken in 2016.

According to NMSI, Peters Township and the other local schools who were part of the College Readiness Program in 2015-2016 accounted for 25.4 % of the entire state’ s increase in math, science and English qualifying AP scores last year.

" Being involved with NMSI has been a very rewarding professional experience,” said Kristin Groninger who teaches English at the High School.“ I ' ve enjoyed working with the knowledgeable presenters and dedicated teachers in the region. This strong professional community has been a benefit to our students."

The partnership with NMSI lasts through the 2018-2019 school year. But the lessons that are being learned will have a permanent impact on these program. This fall, administrators are working with current AP students to connect them with incoming freshmen at the High School to share their AP story, hoping that a peer connection will encourage these younger students to challenge themselves in the AP courses.

“ Our job is to prepare students for success at the next level,” added Pavlik.“ Partnerships like this give our staff the tools to do that better than ever before.”