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| Front row (left to right): Shirley, Cathy, Rachel/ Back row (left to right): JJ, Ken, Kevin, Mr. Jim Gerber |
On May 7, 2008, a group of eight Grade 11 students at WAB became the first in the school’s history to undertake the Advanced Placement examination in calculus. Regardless of the results, this alone would have represented a significant step forward in promoting and recognizing excellence within the mathematics program at our school. However, the outstanding results that these students achieved truly set them, and the school’s extended mathematics program, apart.
The Advanced Placement Program® is a cooperative educational endeavor between secondary schools and colleges and universities. Since its inception in 1955, the program has provided motivated high school students with the opportunity to take college-level courses in a high school setting. Students who participate in the program not only gain college-level skills, but in many cases they also earn college credit while they are still in high school. AP courses are taught by high school teachers who follow course guidelines developed and published by the College Board. The program's success is rooted in the collaborative efforts of motivated students, dedicated teachers and committed schools. By participating in the program, secondary schools make the commitment to organize and support at least one class that is equivalent to a first-year college course.
The AP Calculus program at WAB started two years ago when a small group of students in Mr. Gerber’s Grade 10 extended mathematics class were identified as being capable of handling more difficult mathematics than the school program was offering at the time. Mr. Gerber offered to help these students to prepare, over the course of two years, for the Advanced Placement calculus examination. These students were required to learn the majority of the material on their own with occasional coaching from Mr. Gerber outside of class. By the time that the students needed to commit to taking the exam, there remained eight students who had completed a study of all of the requisite material and were up to the challenge (pictured here). These eight dedicated students met with Mr. Gerber frequently in the months leading up to the four-hour exam during lunch, after school and on Saturdays to complete a final review, and on May 8 they became the first ever WAB students to sit an AP exam.
Once completed, the exams were then sent to the United States to be graded externally by the Educational Testing Service (the same company that does the SAT and GRE exams) and the students were left to wait for their results. The scores on these exams range from 1 to 5, with scores of 3, 4 and 5 generally being considered passing and given credit for the equivalent first-year university program. The calculus exam is usually only attempted by the top math students in any given school and these students are usually in twelfth grade. On this year’s exam, only 21.8% of students world-wide achieved a top grade of 5 on the examination, which makes the WAB students’ results that much more impressive. Of the eight Grade 11 WAB students who took the exam, all 8 received a top grade of 5! This kind of result is almost unheard of, and reflects the hard work and dedication to excellence of these fine students. WAB is extremely proud of their results and congratulates the students on their truly inspiring accomplishment.
Building on the success of these results, Mr. Gerber is now offering AP Calculus as an optional elective class from 7:30am - 8:25am on alternating mornings to selected Grade 10 - 11 students in preparation for the May 2009 exam. WAB hopes to continue to be able to offer this program well into the future, as long as there are students who are interested in pushing their mathematical skills to the limit.