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Fog/Mist Over 160 Baldwin High School students named AP scholars
Baldwin Union Free School District announced that 164 Baldwin High School students have earned Advanced Placement Scholar Awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on AP Exams during the 2022-2023 school year. To qualify for the AP Scholar Award, students must complete three or more AP Exams with scores of three or higher.
The College Board’s AP Program provides students with the opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses while still in high school and to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both, helping these young scholars to potentially reduce their college debt and the number of years spent pursuing a degree. Most four-year colleges provide credit for qualifying exam scores. These AP courses are in addition to the dual-enrollment classes students can take for both high school and college credit while at Baldwin High School.
Baldwin High School currently offers 26 AP courses, as well as an AP Capstone Diploma Program—a College Board academic distinction that is highly valued by colleges across the globe and is based on two yearlong rigorous courses: AP Seminar and AP Research. Approximately 2,200 schools worldwide participated in the AP Capstone Diploma Program for 2022-2023. All Baldwin students, grades 9-12, have an opportunity to take AP courses, as these classes are not based on GPA within Baldwin UFSD and are open to everyone. The high school’s latest graduation rate is 99%.
The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on a student’s performance on AP Exams. Of the 164 Baldwin High School students who earned AP Scholar Awards, 52 of them also qualified for the “AP Scholar with Distinction Award” by earning an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken and scores of three or higher on five or more of these exams. Also, 22 of the students qualified for the “AP Scholar with Honor Award” by earning an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken and scores of three or higher on four or more of these exams. The students still currently enrolled in high school have this school year to complete additional college-level work and possibly earn a higher-level AP Scholar Award.
In addition, 31 students earned the AP Capstone Diploma, which is up by nearly 35% from last year, while 16 students received an AP Seminar and Research Certificate.
Unlike traditional AP subject exams with a single end-of-year assessment, the AP Seminar and AP Research assessments are project based and evaluate skills mastered through group projects, presentations, and individual essays completed throughout the year. Instead of focusing on one specific academic discipline, AP Seminar and AP Research are interdisciplinary. Students are empowered to create research projects based on topics of personal interest. Students are assessed on the critical thinking, research, collaboration, time management, and presentation skills needed to complete their projects.
To receive the AP Capstone Diploma, students must earn scores of three or higher in AP Seminar, in AP Research, and on four additional AP Exams. Students who score three or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research, but not on all four additional exams, will receive the AP Seminar and Research Certificate.
“Congratulations to our AP Scholars, as well as our AP Seminar and Research Certificate and Capstone Diploma Recipients,” said Shari Camhi, superintendent of schools for Baldwin UFSD. “We are incredibly proud of our students, teachers and administration who have made this program such a success. To see this number continue to climb is a direct result of the level of commitment of our students, our faculty and staff, who are dedicated to implementing a rigorous and future-driven curriculum. We look forward to seeing the continued expansion of our AP course catalog as part of our going mission to help every student graduate ‘future ready.’”
