New Covenant offers selected Advanced Placement courses in the School of Rhetoric and each year our students sit for various AP examinations in the spring. The subject areas range across the disciplines and differ from year to year. Many colleges and universities recognize the AP examination as an indication of mastery in a discipline, and many – not all – will award college credit in selected disciplines based upon a student’s performance. AP exams are typically graded on a 1 – 5 scale. To achieve credit from colleges that recognize and accept AP, a student must score three or higher on an AP Exam.

This year’s New Covenant students have done extremely well. Eighteen students in grades 10-12 took AP exams this year, and eleven of those students, all seniors, took at least two exams. AP exams were given in English Language/Composition , English Literature/Composition, Biology, Calculus (both AB and BC levels), Latin (Vergil), and Physics (Mechanics). Out of the 35 total exams taken, 74% received a score of 3 or above. Of special note, eleven of fourteen seniors took the English Language/Composition exam and 100% earned qualifying scores.

The AP Program offers several AP Scholar Awards to recognize high school students who have demonstrated college-level achievement through AP courses and exams. Only about 18 percent of the more than 1.9 million students worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to also earn an AP Scholar Award. Five New Covenant students (28% of our students who took AP exams this year) have earned AP Scholar Awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on AP Exams. Andrew Lehmann qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor award by earning an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. Jim Hurt, Fiona Leitch, Seth Mayberry, and Keane Rucker qualified for the AP Scholar award by completing three or more AP Exams with scores of 3 or higher. These are extraordinary scores and we congratulate these seniors on their accomplishments.