Cherokee Schools Honored in Annual AP District Honor Roll

The Cherokee County School District has received state and national recognition for its success on the college-level Advanced Placement tests, says the district website.

The school district is one of only three school systems in Georgia to earn a spot on the fourth annual AP District Honor Roll, a national list of the 477 systems that have achieved the greatest success in maintaining or improving the rate of students passing the exams while also increasing student participation. The AP Program allows high school students who score a 3, 4 or 5 on an AP exam to earn college credit in high school and, subsequently, to exempt those courses in college.

The district says “This recognition is a testament to the dedication of our students to succeed and the devotion of our teachers, administrators, parents and the entire community to ensure that every student has the opportunity to begin their college studies with as successful a start as possible.”

Students who participate in AP courses, studies show, are more likely to earn higher scores on the SAT and ACT and to complete their college education; and passage of AP exams places students at an academic and financial advantage, as they can both begin classes in their major sooner and avoid tuition costs for exempted courses.

The Cherokee school district’s 2013 test administration passage rate of 76 percent exceeds both the national average of 57 percent and the state average of 54 percent.

Additionally, the school district’s participation rate increased by 13 percent in the past year with 3,077 tests administered in 2013, up from 2,730 in 2012.