BRHS Students Have Highest Scores in AP Tests

The is celebrating success after students achieved the highest average advanced placement scores in AP calculus and probability/statistics tests ever recorded at the school.

According to high school math teacher Steven Kane, a total of 222 AP mathematics exams were taken by students in the 2011-2012 school year.

Out of all those exams, Kane said, the students had an average score of 4.7 out of 5, the highest ever at BRHS.

“And it crushes the national average, which would be a 3.2,” he said.

Out of all the exams, Kane said, 220 earned a 3 or better, and more than 95 percent of the exams taken scored a 4 or 5, which is advanced proficiency.

That, Kane said, is higher than the national average of less than 50 percent.

“This year saw record scores in individual classes,” he said. “We had the highest average scores ever in calculus BC and calculus AB, highest percentage of 5 scores in all math subjects, and probability/statistics had its sixth year in a row with 100 percent passing rate.”

Kane said New Jersey does have the highest AP scores in the nation, but the BRHS students beat even the state averages.

“If the math department were a high school, we’d be number two in the nation,” said Steve Beatty, social studies teacher at BRHS and president of the , at the July 24 board of education meeting.

For example, Kane said, in AB calculus, the BRHS average was 4.6, while the state average was 3.4. In BC calculus, he said, the BRHS average was 4.8, and the state average was 4.2.

Finally, Kane said, in probability/statistics, the BRHS average was 4.7 and the state average was 3.2.

Superintendent of Schools Michael Schilder said at the meeting that the district did receive the scores, and are awaiting an official report from the college boards.

“We are thrilled,” he said.

Kane said the students and staff worked diligently to make this happen.

“We held four 4-hour review session for the kids, including one during spring vacation,” he said. “These sessions were staffed entirely by teacher volunteers, including teachers that had nothing to do with the exams.”