9 LI districts named to AP honor roll

Nine Long Island school districts were named Tuesday to the College Board's second annual AP District Honor Roll for increasing enrollment in college-level courses and for keeping students' scores high.

The Commack, Copiague, Eastport-South Manor, Harborfields and Herricks districts made the list, as did Levittown, Riverhead, Sayville and Syosset. A total of 367 school districts across the United States and Canada were named, including 30 in New York.

The recognition focuses on student participation in Advanced Placement courses, often the most rigorous classes a district offers. Students score from 1 to 5 on AP exams, which are taken at the end of each course. Many competitive universities grant college credit for scores of 3, 4 or 5.

Charles Leunig, superintendent of Copiague schools, praised the district's teachers for helping students achieve their goals and administrators for freeing up time in students' schedules to allow them to take the advanced courses.

"We have some really solid, very energetic teachers who will stop at nothing to see that their kids are successful," he said. "Once you fit the right pegs into the right holes, you build on that momentum. We are really psyched about this."

Leunig said student participation in AP courses increased 32 percent from 2009 to 2011. The percentage of students scoring a 3 or higher increased by 35 percent in that same period.

About 50 percent of the district's students are Hispanic and about 30 percent are black.

Leunig said the percentage of traditionally underserved minority students in Copiague earning scores of 3 or higher increased by 61 percent.

Debbie Rifkin, assistant superintendent for instruction in the Levittown school district, said just the experience of taking an AP course -- with its advanced curriculum and independent learning component -- helps students prepare for college.

"Our goal is to open the doors to more challenging classes to all of our students," Rifkin said. "Our passing rate has not suffered at all. It's improved."

She said Levittown students took 1,149 AP exams at the end of the 2010-11 school year, and 72 percent of them scored a 3 or higher. Three years earlier, the district's students took 940 AP exams and 65 percent scored a 3 or higher. The district serves 7,429 students.

The College Board examined three years of AP data.For selection to the Honor Roll, districts were required to have increased participation in AP courses by at least 4 percent in large districts, 6 percent in medium-sized school systems and 11 percent in smaller districts.

The districts also had to show steadily increasing participation among black, Hispanic/Latino and American Indians/Alaska native students. In addition, they must show that their performance levels held steady or improved from 2009 to 2011, or that more than 70 percent of students earned a 3 or higher on the AP exams.