Advanced Placement Program expands

MOSES LAKE - A recent expansion of the Moses Lake High School Advanced Placement program is giving students an edge to their education.

"It's basically the best curriculum, as far as rigor goes, to get them prepared for college," said Triscia Hochstatter, who teaches Advanced Placement Calculus at Moses Lake High School.

Moses Lake High School now offers 10 Advanced Placement (AP) courses in a variety of subjects including science, math, English, history and geography.

This year, 187 students will take a total of 292 AP exams. In 2010, 129 students took 222 exams.

"I have one student in my first period class that's taking five tests this year," Hochstatter said.

There will be 18 AP scholars in this year's graduating class. An AP scholar is considered any student that takes five or more AP courses.

The AP program allows high school students to take courses recognized by colleges. Upon completion of an AP course, students are eligible to take an exam to earn college credit.

The AP program is overseen by the College Board.

"College Board works in conjunction with university colleges to set the standards and to create the exams," said Hochstatter. "Before a high school can even offer AP courses, they actually have to undergo an AP course audit, so you have to submit your syllabus to the college board and they have to approve it before any school in the United States can list something on a transcript as AP."

Students can score from one to five on the exams. A one means that there is "no recommendation for receiving college credit and/or placement," where a five indicates that the student is "extremely well qualified," according to the College Board website.

"It gives me a challenge during school," said Moses Lake student Ryan Temple, who is taking teacher Jon Wrigley's AP Macroeconomics course. "That's why I took it. I needed a challenge."

Temple has also taken AP US History and AP Government/Politics.

AP courses are "a lot harder" than normal courses, said MLHS student Alex Noyes, who is taking AP Macroeconomics and has taken AP European History, AP Statistics, AP Government/Politics and AP Calculus. He added that he thought AP courses are more homework-based than traditional high school courses.

Student Kewena Delottinville pointed out one of the practical benefits of AP courses.

"It looks good on resumés," he said.

He's taking AP Macroeconomics and has taken AP Statistics and AP Government/Politics.

Hochstatter said there are 30 AP courses that can be offered. Moses Lake only offers ten, but Hochstatter said that some students elect to take independent studies where they can study the curriculum of AP courses MLHS doesn't offer such as Spanish, music and physics. They can still take the AP exam at the end of the semester.

"For a student to do that is pretty impressive," Hochstatter said.

It costs $87 for each exam students take. Students eligible for free or reduced lunch pay $5 for each exam.

"It's quite a savings" compared to the cost of college tuition ... A lot of people like to get their kids in this college preparatory stuff so they can rush them through," said Hochstatter. "That's one advantage to it, but I look at it as they go to college as a freshman, but they're maybe sophomore status because they brought so many credits with them. That allows them a lot more flexibility to actually take other classes and add on some other majors and minors and still finish in four years."