ORR was named as one of the 343 schools to make the the Advanced Placement (AP) honor roll on Dec. 12 by the College Board, for successfully increasing AP enrollment by a certain percentage of students.

For medium-sized districts like ORR, the required percentage to increase enrollment is usually six percent. However, Principal Mike Devoll explained that “We’ve increased each year since 2012 at an increment of two hundred and five percent.”

The school’s strategy for increasing enrollment was twofold.

“We have offered new AP classes that attract different student interests, including AP studio art, AP research, AP seminar and AP Computer Science,” said Devoll.

However, two years ago the school also allowed students to take AP courses earlier in their high school experience. 

“We also opened doors for sophomores to take AP classes, where historically they were junior and senior offerings,” Devoll explained.

The AP honor roll standards from the College Board also detail efforts to include African American, Hispanic and Native American or Pacific Islander students in AP courses. However it is more difficult to use these categories at a school like ORR.

Instead, Devoll considers AP courses at ORR more diverse if they include students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, or if they are students who might not push themselves to take AP courses, but try one because they are drawn to a certain subject. 

“Access is important to us, We want students to be able to access these classes, whether that’s a student that takes 4 or 5 AP classes, or a student that just wants to try one class,” Devoll said.

The school currently offers AP courses in math and science courses, such as biology, chemistry, environmental science, statistics and calculus, two history courses, U.S. and European history, three languages, Spanish, French and Latin, two variations on English (English Language and English Literature) and other offerings such as computer science, psychology, research, seminar, and studio art.