For the past decade, Weehawken High School has been offering the Advanced Placement courses in history, English, Spanish, biology and calculus with the hope that the students can eventually earn college credits for their efforts.
To receive the credits, the students have to take a national exam, then finish with a score of three or higher on a one-to-five grading scale.
More than 700,000 students take the AP tests nationwide. Only 13 percent ever receive the credits. It’s a very stringent procedure.
However, the Weehawken Board of Education just found out that five high school seniors who took the AP national exam last May and have since graduated from the school were not only able to receive high scores on the tests, but were given certificates of merit.
Four of the students got AP Scholar awards from the College Board for scoring three or higher in three AP exams. They were Lydia Bazikian (currently attending Rutgers University); Ingred Wilson (currently attending Cornell University); John Grossi (currently attending Stevens Tech); and Robyn Kitto (currently at New York University).
A fifth student, Martha Bialkowski, went one better. She earned AP Scholar with Honors for having an average of 3.25 on all AP exams and a score of three or higher on four exams. Bialkowski currently attends New York University.
For a small district like Weehawken to have five students place among the best of 700,000 is no small accomplishment.
“We’re very pleased that our students were able to merit this recognition,” Weehawken Superintendent of Schools Kevin McLellan said last week. “It’s a tremendous effort by a small school. It’s great news for the district, but it’s even better news for the parents who have to pay for college tuition, since they now don’t have to pay for extra courses.”
The scores enable the students to skip certain introductory-level college courses.
“It enables them to free up their schedules more to take other classes,” McLellan said. “It really is a big blessing for them.”
McLellan said that approximately 25 Weehawken students begin to take the Advanced Placement courses in the high school in their junior year and continue through their senior year. The courses are offered annually.
“We offer them the opportunity to reach their maximum potential as students,” McLellan said. “This is proof that we’re doing a great job. It’s also a testament to what the faculty and staff of the high school have to do to prepare these students for the courses and eventually for the exams.”
McLellan said that the faculty has to attend advanced training workshops organized by the national Advanced Placement program that instruct the teachers to follow the national curriculum. “It’s definitely a labor of love for our teachers and this is the positive result,” McLellan said. “We’re very pleased with the results.”
All five of the award-winning seniors graduated among the top five in the Class of 2000 last June, with Bazikian earning valedictory honors and Wilson the salutatorian.