School leads FISD in AP Scholar Awards
Classes such as AP Environmental Science are just one example on campus where students excelled on AP Exams. For the 2014-15 school year, 121 students on campus earned the AP Scholar Award; 43 students earned the AP Scholar with Honors Award; 143 students earned the AP Scholar with Distinction Award; and 47 students earned the National AP Scholar Award.
August 27, 2015
Frisco ISD students took a record high 8,660 Advance Placement Exams at the end of the 2014-15 school year, with the Redhawks leading the way receiving 47 National AP Scholar Awards and 143 AP Scholar with Distinction Awards. This is 70 more Distinction awards than the second highest school in the district (Wakeland) and 11 more National AP Scholar Awards than the rest of the district combined.
“It shows that our teachers set high expectations for their students and they really know the skills that the students need to be proficient at in order to do well,” assistant principal Kristen Sommers said. “They give the students the support that they need to reach those high expectations.”
For many teachers on campus, the success of the AP Exam scores is a credit to both the teachers and students who put in hours of dedication and hard work every day.
“A lot of it has to do with the expectations levels the teachers place on the students,” AP Human Geography teacher Tim Johannes said. “At Liberty, the level is right.”
FISD students received a three, four or five on nearly 70 percent of all AP Exams taken by district students in 2015 with the on campus numbers some of the best in the district.
“We’re lucky because our students are driven,” AP World History teacher Julie Rutherford said. “If you have even a small group driven, it’s contagious.”
Students feel gratified by the results. Sophomore Vineet Sadarangani, a former AP Human Geography student, agrees that the work is well worth it.
“Doing flashcards everyday and having extensive amounts of homework all helped me,” Sadarangani said. “At the end, when I took the actual AP exam, I got a 5 and so I knew everything, like not watching T.V. every night, actually paid off in the end.”
Although nobody knew for sure how students on campus would fare on AP Exams, the results aren’t surprising to many.
“It wasn’t surprising to me because I know our teachers and students and how much our students put into their studies and how successful they want to be,” Sommers said. “I hope that we can continue our success. Our students are very successful in all different areas so I hope they just continue to be successful.”
