What is the Meiji Restoration?
Belfast Area High School senior Forrest Boynton knows, thanks to the Advanced Placement world history class he took his sophomore year.
The restoration began in 1868, marked the Westernization of Japan and was the end of the age of the samurai.
The 18-year-old from Troy said the accelerated class taught him a lot.
“It was tough, but I like history,” he said Friday afternoon. “You can see the difference between normal-level classes and AP. You cover a lot more things quicker … In some classes, you don’t retain the information. You don’t have to use it ever again. But with AP, because you have to commit all that stuff to memory, I still remember it.”
Across Maine, more students such as Forrest are taking advantage of the college-level Advanced Placement, or AP, courses taught in their high schools.
Student participation in rigorous AP high school classes in Maine has nearly doubled over the last decade, according to a report issued this week by the College Board, the nonprofit education organization that administers the AP exam. Maine educators say the tough classes are providing teens with new — and valuable — tools for college.
Maine ranks 12th in the nation for the percentage of students graduating in 2010 who had at least one successful AP experience, according to the 7th Annual AP Report to the nation. Almost 20 percent of high school seniors in the state have taken an AP course and scored at least a three out of five on the exam, which is eligible for credit at many colleges and universities.
According to the College Board, Maine also is among the best in the nation at increasing AP success, with a 4.8 percent increase over five years in students who have earned a score of at least three. That improvement rate puts Maine at fourth in the nation.
In 2001, 2,050 Maine seniors had taken an AP exam in their high school career, with 1,371 of them earning at least a three out of five. By 2010, those numbers had increased to 4,034 seniors having taken an AP exam, with 2,430 of them earning at least a three out of five. The 4,034 students who took AP exams represent 31.6 percent of all 12,774 seniors in 2010.
“I think it provides students with the opportunity to stretch,” said Ruey Yehle, the principal of Hampden Academy. “I think anytime that can happen — whether it’s an AP class or an online class — anytime we can do that, to let students try things in a more supportive environment, it increases their success and their opportunities to be successful.”
According to the College Board, millions of students have taken college-level courses and exams and earned college credit or placement while still in high school since the program began in 1955.
There are more than 30 courses and exams, but the most popular AP courses for Maine seniors in 2010 were U.S. history, English literature and composition, English language and composition, calculus and biology, according to the report. More than 90 percent of the country’s four-year colleges and universities have an AP policy that grants incoming students credit, placement or both for qualifying exam scores.
Belfast Area High School teacher Molly Ross, who has taught AP world history for nine years, says she has heard from former students that the courses have helped them survive and thrive in college.
“We ask them, ‘Are you prepared?’” Ross said. “They’ll come back and say, ‘My roommate didn’t even know what a thesis is.’ The AP helps.”
One Belfast Area High School graduate was asked by her college professors whether she had attended a private school. Ross’ own stepdaughters have been able to use the college credit from AP courses to enter the University of Maine at Farmington as second-semester freshmen.
“For us as parents, it saved us thousands,” she said.
According to Ross, roughly 75 out of the high school’s 640 students have participated in one or more AP classes, or less than 10 percent. The classes are challenging and graded according to national standards, and all students are welcome, though some do struggle.
The teacher talked about some former students who were what she called the “pluggers,” teens who kept on working and learning in the AP courses despite receiving not-great grades.
“These are kids that might not be the shining star, but they have grabbed that opportunity, worked hard and are so ready for college,” Ross said. “I know what I’m asking 15-year-old kids to do, and I’m asking them to behave like 19-year-old kids. I understand that I’m asking a lot of them.”
The rewards are great, she said.
That’s music to the ears of officials with the Maine Department of Education and Gov. Paul LePage, who reacted to the College Board report in a press release this week.
“Maine students need to be challenged by high expectations,” LePage said. “Maine students will meet the expectations we set for them — whether they are high expectations or low expectations … This shows that we can challenge and educate our students to their fullest potential and prepare them for college. We just need to do it more.”
At Hampden Academy, 110 students — primarily juniors and seniors — took 165 different AP exams last year, according to the principal. That represents 25-30 percent of the student body in those two grades, Yehle said, adding that the school has worked to increase the numbers of students enrolled in AP classes.
“We are trying to promote students who may be nervous about challenging themselves, but who we think, with some extra support from us, it would be a really good experience for them,” Yehle said.
That also has been the case at Bangor High School, where Paul Butler, the School Department’s Gifted and Talented director, said as many as 30 percent of graduating seniors have scored a three or better on at least one exam. All Bangor students are invited to enroll in AP classes.
“We have an open-access policy for any student,” he said. “It’s rare to have a system that says, ‘We welcome achievers.’”
Bangor High’s success with the AP program has been recognized at high levels.
Former student Rebecca Ye last year was named the State AP Scholar for Maine, a designation granted to one male and one female student in each state and the District of Columbia with grades of three or higher on the greatest number of AP exams and the highest average grade on all AP exams taken.
Also in 2010, BHS chemistry teacher Cary James earned a Siemens Foundation Award for top achievement in AP science or math, the only Maine teacher so honored.
“Part of the story of Bangor’s success in AP is that generally, for the achievement of our students, we encourage them to take the highest-level courses they want,” Butler said. “We’re really interested in pushing kids in the best possible way to the highest-level work they can manage. We’re not interested in putting barriers up to their success.”