Eight Baltimore County high schools listed among the nation?s top 1,200 by a recent Newsweek study were presented with framed covers of the magazine?s mid-May issue Wednesday by County Executive James Smith in a small ceremony Thursday in Towson.
Carver Center for Arts and Technology;Catonsville; Dulaney; Franklin; Hereford; Loch Raven; Pikesville; and Towson high schools were selected according to the magazine?s challenge index, based on a ratio of the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at the school divided by the number of graduating seniors.
“The world is flat and small,” Smith said, in a reference to a book by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. “We?re in a very global economy where the person you are competing against may be 1,000 miles away. ? That?s one reason why AP courses are so important. The national recognition also sets the stage for Baltimore County to attract businesses.”
Pikesville, at No. 158, was the top-ranked county school, followed by Dulaney and Towson, at 274 and 317, respectively.
Offering and enrolling more AP courses is an increasingly attractive means for high schools to prepare students for college and challenge those who may not be motivated.
“Our students begin taking AP courses in the 10th grade, the first year eligible,” Pikesville Principal Dorothy Hardin said. “But we start before that by encouraging kids who aren?t confident they are ?AP? students. We have great parents, too, and we use parents, teachers and guidance counselors to reach the kids. We probably have 80 percent of our students taking at least one AP course at any given time.
“We have students who are accepted to Cornell, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Duke and other great schools every year,” Hardin said, “and they come back and tell us they felt like they were well prepared for the rigors of college. Our goal is to have all students take at least one AP class.”
Towson High junior Hannah Mayhew said the extra effort demanded of AP courses is worth it. She took five last year.
One big attraction is better teachers who make the classes more dynamic, Mayhew said.
The other benefit isobvious: impressing university admissions offices.
“I run cross-country and track, and after practice, sometimes I just want to come home and eat and go to sleep,” Mayhew said. “But I make sure I do my homework. It?s important. Colleges expect you take AP classes now.”
