Glenbard South pushes for more AP students

The staff at Glenbard South High School is pushing for more students to take advanced placement and honors classes because studies have found students in such classes fare better in college.

But some parents are concerned that if more students take the classes, a smaller percentage will pass the AP exams and, consequently, the school's scores would decline.

"We want more students to have an opportunity to best prepare for university," Principal Terri Hanrahan said.

Right now, Hanrahan said, 86 percent of the students at the school who take the AP exams pass with a score of 3, 4 or 5.

"Our AP passing rate will go down," she said, and the staff as a whole will have to rethink how to teach courses with more students. "I think our teachers are worried about that."

Small classes also will no longer be economically feasible, Hanrahan said.

However, the number of students taking AP classes has remained stagnant at 20 percent to 25 percent and Hanrahan said she wants more people to have the opportunity to succeed in college.

"Students who take AP classes are better prepared," she said, because the course work is more rigorous.

Hanrahan said teachers are targeting more students who they think will be able to succeed in honors and AP courses.

The social studies department also added an additional AP class and brought in 72 more students overall into the courses.