Mapletown High doubles its AP courses
MAPLETOWN – Southeastern Greene School District is doubling its advanced placement courses next year, thanks to a $200,000 grant it received last month.
The district has three AP courses now and will gain three more to be implemented next year, because of the grant from the National Math Science Initiative, according to Scott Sinn, director of curriculum and instructional programs.
“As of five years ago, we didn’t have any AP courses,” Sinn said. “I give the staff and teachers a ton of credit – it’s their having the commitment and the hard work to implement the curriculum.”
Sinn said the district applied for the grant in November, after the students asked for “additional challenging courses” and the community pushed the administration to offer the students more college-readiness classes.
Mapletown High School now offers two science, technology, engineering and math AP courses and an AP history course. Next year, the grant will allow it to implement AP statistics, biology, and English language and composition courses.
Sinn said that, according to the National Math Science Initiative, students that participate in the curriculum are 10 times more likely to pass the state AP test at the end of the year.
Sinn said the three-year grant will provide teachers with training for the new courses and will pay the cost for the students’ AP assessments. He said the district plans to continue the program after the three years of the grant, “as long as the interest is still there.”