The Academy Charter High School – Hempstead was recognized for AP achievement. Congratulations to Mr. Holloway and his team on receiving the Silver Level distinction for AP performance.
Excerpt from Newsday:
New York, for the third consecutive year, maintained its high state ranking in Advanced Placement testing, while hundreds of high schools statewide and on Long Island won individual honors, test sponsors reported. The latest results, for 2024, show that New York upped its academic performance while also holding onto its second-place position among states. Rankings were based on the percentage of public-school graduates who passed at least one college-level AP test.
AP honor roll
In Nassau and Suffolk counties, top-quality college-level courses for high school students are already widely available, a Newsday analysis found. For example, more than two-thirds of the 122 public high schools located in the region are listed on the latest AP honor roll. Eleven schools offer another college program known as International Baccalaureate.
The AP’s honor roll offers four levels of distinction: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. School designations depend on the rate at which students take and pass those exams with a minimum score of 3 out of 5. Another measure is the percentage of students taking a minimum of five exams during four years of high school, with at least one test taken in ninth or 10th grade.
Gold, silver and bronze
In other categories, 31 Long Island schools took gold, 40 silver and 19 bronze. The mix included the school districts of Riverhead and Baldwin, which both earned silver, and Farmingdale and Deer Park, which were named to the bronze level. Also on the roster was Academy Charter High School, Hempstead campus, which is public, and a substantial number of non-public schools including Jewish yeshivas, Catholic academies and independent prep schools.
St. Anthony’s High School in Huntington Station, which is run by a Franciscan religious order, was named to the gold level. The school’s principal, Brother David Migliorino, recalled his recent reaction as he wrote a letter recommending one of his 12th graders for a university scholarship. Reviewing the student’s records, the school chief discovered the teen was taking six AP courses, along with a required class in theology. “I was kind of blown away by that,” the principal said. St. Anthony’s, which was founded in 1933, occupies a sprawling campus with about 2,500 students.
Academy Charter School, which opened in 2016, has grown from 125 students to 540 students in eight years, and occupies a five-story building in downtown Hempstead Village. The school has been cited for success in educating students whose families face financial challenges — more than 70% are economically disadvantaged, according to the SUNY Charter Schools Institute. Travis Holloway, the Hempstead school’s principal, said he was “pleasantly surprised” to learn his school was on the AP honor roll with a silver designation. He said that about 25 of the school’s graduates each year pass at least one AP exam, and that six seniors this year have passed at least three exams required to be designated AP scholars. Among them is Rebecca Hernandez, 17, who passed six AP courses. She credited her parents, who she said moved to New York from El Salvador, for prioritizing academics. “My parents wanted something better for me,” Hernandez told Newsday.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON NEWSDAY.COM
By John Hildebrand and Michael R. Ebert
john.hildebrand@newsday.com,michael.ebert@newsday.com
John Hildebrand is Newsday’s senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years. Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003.
