MILTON — Starting in the fall of 2017, advanced placement students at Milton High School will have the opportunity to earn an AP Capstone diploma, which requires students to conduct in-depth college level research, both individually and in a group, for a subject-specific study through AP Seminar and AP Research.
“(AP students who decide to participate) are going to end up writing a college level thesis as a senior in high school based on a couple of years of work from their junior and senior year,” MHS Principal Tim Short said. “If they can create a body of work that is deemed passing by the AP/College Board, along with passing a minimum of passing four other AP exams, they are going to graduate with an AP diploma.”
The AP programs of College Board, a not-for-profit organization that promotes connecting students to college success and opportunity, allows students to earn college credit while in high school.
According to a press release, the AP Seminar course is typically taken in the 10th or 11th grade. The course aims to equip students with the ability to view real-world issues from multiple perspectives.
Through research, students are expected to tackle complex questions, understand and evaluate different viewpoints, interpret and divulge information. In addition to global and national, such topics can reflect upon local and regional topics. The seminar course is assessed through a team project with presentation along with an individual project and presentation and an end-of-course exam.
The subsequent, AP Research course, requires students to “design, plan and conduct a yearlong research-based investigation on a topic of individual interest, documenting their process with a portfolio,” according to a press release. The course will require students to build upon skills acquired in the ‘Seminar’ course to “collect, analyze and synthesize information to build, present and defend an argument,” the press release said.
Short anticipates the school’s AP students will take to the new curriculum based on how they perform in the school’s other AP curriculum. This year the school has added two AP courses to their curriculum, AP Human Geography and AP Art History. Short said the school is also looking to bring AP Physics and AP Statistics.
“Our advanced placement results grew by 16 percent last year in terms of pass rate,” Short said. “We went from a 29 percent pass rate to a 45 percent pass rate in one year.”
With the growth, Short said the school’s AP instructors came together to explore other academic opportunities available to their students, the search led to AP Capstone. Short credited school teachers Roxi Ford and Charity Sanborn for applying for the AP Capstone program.
“These two teachers really took the ball and ran with it,” Short said. “(They) filled out the application process and wrote up a proposal.”
Having the AP Capstone program at Milton High School is a rarity for the area, according to Short; the closest school to offer the program located in Panama City. Short said more school’s could soon follow.
“There is nothing in Escambia, Santa Rosa or Okaloosa County. Now that may change, because we know that we have been accepted,” Short said. “There may be others (schools) in the middle of the same process. The (Santa Rosa County School District) Director of High Schools tells me that we are the only school in Santa Rosa County that has completed the process at this time and has been accepted.”
Short said the curriculum allows the school to “raise the bar even higher” in terms of adding more curriculum for their AP students.
“We expect a lot of good things from this for Milton High School and the community,” he said. “This was an opportunity we could not pass up.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: AP Capstone program coming to Milton High School