NEWMAN – Changes could be in store for the advanced placement (AP) courses at Orestimba High School.

Superintendent Rick Fauss said ongoing concerns about low enrollment in some AP courses, a low percentage of AP students taking the followup exam for which they can earn college credit and questions about whether AP courses should be open to all students without prerequisites have led to a review of the program.

“We have been talking about this for three years. It is not new, but it has gotten to the point where we want to make some changes,” Fauss commented.

Orestimba was urged to make its AP program more inclusive by the WASC team conducting the school’s latest accreditation visit, Fauss and Principal Joe Terra said.

As a result, AP courses are now open to all students, with no prerequisites needed to enroll in one of the advanced classes.

“WASC felt the AP courses were not accessible to the under-represented students, but I think that we perhaps went too far in the other direction. I think we’re kind of setting some of those students up for failure,” he stated.

Fauss said he also wants to ensure that the AP courses have the rigor required to prepare students to pass the challenging college credit exams

At the local level, AP students can earn students a weighted grade point average benefit. The AP program also offers students the opportunity to test for general education credits at UC and CSUS schools – saving both time and money.

Fauss said he wants a renewed emphasis placed on AP students taking the test.

“We need to make a true AP program to get students ready to take that exam,” the superintendent stated. “The students who take the exams tend to do well; the question is how many students take it. We want to build into the program an across-the-board expectation that they will take the exam.”

The goal of increased testing has become more feasible, Terra said, because funding is now available to offset the expense of the exams, which typically was the responsibility of the student in the past.

The question of access to the AP courses is up for debate.

A student who simply wants to be challenged can enroll in an AP class under current policy, Terra said, although prerequisites are being considered for next year.

The situation poses a Catch-22, Terra conceded.

“If a student wants to try something, I’m not one to stand in the way,” he commented, “but we do have to set some standards also.”

Fauss said the school board will ultimately decide whether to put prerequisites into place for admission into AP courses. “We can have prerequisites, but we don’t have to,” he noted.

Enrollment is yet another consideration.

While some AP courses, such as U.S. History and English, have enrollment well above 20 students, others have class sizes of a dozen or fewer.

Fauss is recommending that one of those courses, European history, be discontinued, and said the district may also have to look at options for its AP calculus course.

“We know we can do things a little differently,” the superintendent concluded.

The only firm decision that has been made regarding the AP program came earlier this month, when the board approved an AP chemistry course which will replace an AP environmental sciences course.