BOE mulls more AP courses

The Board of Education began talks Tuesday night on expanding Advanced Placement (AP) courses to the rest of the student base in the West Milford High School.

Avoiding tuition costs and early college graduation rates are possible outcomes of high school students who are exposed to AP courses.

Less than a third of students take AP courses, however, more than two-thirds of students graduate and go to a college within a year of matriculation according to BOE Member Steven Drew.

Only elite students take AP courses while the rest are in honors and the majority being in college prep, Drew said.

“The average student who takes an AP class and scores two or higher are going to do better on their subsequent college courses than if they had taken the same class in college,” Drew said. “AP classes improve education. I want to see this be a real goal we move towards.”

A majority of the board seemed to be in favor of the proposal.

“I think we’re are all in agreement," Schools Superintendent Alex Anemone said during the meeting. "We are making a lot of strides towards increasing enrollment in some of our upper-level courses, whether it’s AP, honors, or even college prep.”

However, don’t expect instant change to come anytime soon.

“This is a process that takes time,” Director of Education Daniel Novak said. “The preparation of staff, we’ve talked about it for three years.”

According to Novak, this proposal has been around for a few years, and pushing to expand AP classes is a big change.

Readying students for life beyond high school is one of the priorities of the BOE and school systems and expanding AP courses could further that goal, officials said.