AP classes buff up a school's image

Amy Baeder's Advanced Placement biology class was scheduled to do a photosynthesis lab Monday, but halfway through the first-period class, the pre-lab questions had stumped almost everyone.

For most of the Cleveland High School sophomores, juniors and seniors, Baeder's class is the hardest they've ever taken. It moves faster, there are more tests, and the A's these top students are used to getting? Suffice it to say it's not happening.

"We won't get into specifics," said Thea Leidel, a senior.

It's one of two Advanced Placement (AP) courses Cleveland is offering for the first time — a move toward improving the high school's academic reputation.

To carry the AP brand, Baeder had to attend training and submit her class syllabus to The College Board, a New York organization that oversees the AP program. If students do well on the AP test at the end of the school year, they are eligible to earn college credit for the class.

"Our school has not had a very good image as far as academics recently," Baeder said. Offering more advanced courses helps. College preparation — and an edge in college admission — is behind massive growth in AP course offerings across the country over the past three decades. More than 14,000 schools nationwide offer at least one AP course.

In Washington, the number of students enrolled in AP courses more than doubled between 2001 and 2006 — to 37,173.

The Edmonds School District is working on expanding AP offerings to underclassmen in its high schools, a district spokeswoman said. Departing Bellevue schools Superintendent Mike Riley is known for increasing AP participation by making it a goal that every student in his district would take at least one AP course. Seattle's new superintendent, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, has said she has the same goal. To reach it, she's working on spreading AP around, giving more students access to the courses.

"When I say all kids should take AP, I believe students should not be denied access because it's not taught," Goodloe-Johnson said.

A 2007 University of Texas study showed students who took AP in high school earned better grades in college.

An outside audit of Seattle's gifted program released this week suggested the district deliver AP courses by video feed, if necessary, to more equally spread the opportunity among high schools.

Today, Seattle's AP offerings are inconsistent.

Garfield High School has the most AP courses in the district — 15. Any student can take them, but they are offered as part of the district's Accelerated Progress Program. Roosevelt has 11, and Ballard plans to offer 16 this school year, although not all of them have been approved by The College Board. Ingraham and Sealth high schools offer similarly advanced courses through another program called International Baccalaureate.

The lack of AP courses in the South End creates something of a downward spiral for those schools. Because state and district funding are tied to enrollment, they lose funding as fewer students enroll. That means they can't offer as many classes, which makes it harder to attract students.

That's certainly been the case for Cleveland, said Wayne Floyd, the school's interim principal.

"A lot of times when people are picking schools for their students, that's one of the things that they're looking for," he said of advanced classes. "It just gives the perception to the school that it's a quality school."

Rainier Beach High School has seen its enrollment fall by nearly half — to 374 students — in the past five years. The school plans to nearly double its AP offerings this year. This semester, the school's registrar says the school offers just three.

Adding AP courses to schools is expensive and relies on a dedicated teacher and money in the budget to pay for books and supplies.

Consider Baeder's class: Last spring, she lobbied to secure the class's place on the school schedule. Then she recruited a group of students who had taken the right prerequisites and were motivated enough to succeed in a college-level course. A private donation bought the course's $100 textbooks, but the school still had to scrounge up $1,500 for supplies. Each AP final exam — which students must take to be eligible for college credit — costs students $84.

This year, Cleveland also started offering an AP 11th-grade language-arts class. There are plans to add physics, chemistry, government and U.S. history.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com