Students who recently returned from an educational excursion to Costa Rica as part of an AP Bilogy course include Christian Forster, Joe Gorka, Davis Long, Lane Jorgenson, Danny Chen, Lilia Theisen, Jacob Kastle, Mahdi Hurreh Kalli Liston, Klara Peterson, Maddy Halley, Jenna Hunt, Kowsar Hurreh and Lexis Wedell.
Forest Lake Area High School students enrolled in advanced placement courses throughout the 2014-15 school year posted some of the highest overall scores the school has ever seen. Sixty-seven percent of AP students scored high enough to earn college credit, exceeding both the state average of 65 percent and the global average of 58 percent.
“It has been a steady progression as far as number of courses we offer and number of kids we serve within the AP program,” Principal Steve Massey said.
Forest Lake currently offers more than 30 AP and concurrent enrollment (college courses offered within the high school) courses, and school administrators are constantly looking to increase those offerings.
“Typically we think of AP in terms of math, literature, science, and other core subjects,” District Administrator Linda Madsen said. “Here in Forest Lake we have those courses in music and agriculture and art as well. That is a part of what makes us unique.”
Students in Advanced Placement classes must take an exam for each class at the end of the school year. If they score a 3 or higher on a five-point scale, they earn college credit. Between AP and concurrent enrollment college courses, Forest Lake students have earned 3,050 semester credits, the equivalent of 101 full years of college credit, and 25 four-year degrees.
“We are constantly looking for different ways to maximize opportunities for our students,” Madsen said. “We stress the importance of taking the AP courses, doing well in them, and also capitalizing on the financial piece.”
Earning college credit in a high school setting minimizes the cost of actual college by cutting down on the number of post-secondary courses that students will have to take. That piece is one of several that Forest Lake student Joe Gorka’s parents appreciate about the school’s AP offerings.
“When Joe enrolled in AP biology, it was the first time that I remember him getting truly excited about school,” John Gorka said. “To really get into the subject at that level was challenging and interesting for him, and you wouldn’t get as much of that out of a typical course offering.”
Joe’s mother Laurie Allman echoed her husband’s sentiments and also spoke to the college credit aspect of the AP offerings.
“The AP courses are taken because of a want more so than a need, and when you get that kind of shared interest between student and teacher and you go that in depth, it really gives the student a better idea about whether that is something they truly want to persue,” she said. “Also, earning college credits now will free up time in college to look into some other courses that there may not have been room for otherwise.”
Massey credits a good part of the success of the AP program to the wide variety of talented teachers willing to take the time to teach the courses.
“When you sign up for an AP course, you do so with the realization that you are in for a lot of hard work and a lot of time studying,” he said. “To see an educator with the ability to engage students in such a way that they are excited to put forth that much effort is a tremendous thing.”