Dr. John Barge, Superintendent of Georgia Schools, released the list of Advanced Placement Honors Schools for Georgia for 2013. Among the schools identified as AP Honors Schools were Bowdon High School and Temple High School. These schools, with enrollment of 900 or fewer students, received this recognition by offering AP courses and testing students in all four content areas, English, math, science, and social studies. Both Bowdon High School and Temple High School have worked consistently, during a period when education funding is low, to continue to provide quality programs such as the Advanced Placement
program.

“These courses and the feeder honors courses are essential programs that contribute to overall
student achievement,” states Principal Karen Suddeth of Temple High School.
Advanced Placement classes and exams are administered by the College Board, which also
administers the SAT. AP classes offer rigorous college-level learning options to students in high
school. Students who receive a 3, 4 or 5 on AP exams may receive college credit.
There has been a steady increase in the number of Georgia’s public school students benefitting
from the AP experience. More of Georgia’s traditionally underserved public high school
graduates are participating and succeeding in AP.

Georgia is a national leader when it comes to public school students enrolling in AP courses
and taking the exams. Only five other states in the country had a greater percentage of AP
exam takers last year. The percentage of Georgia seniors who took an AP exam was 41.1%,
compared to 32.4% for the nation.

Georgia has moved up to 12th in the nation in the percentage of seniors scoring a 3 or higher –
a passing score – on Advanced Placement (AP) exams, according to The College Board's AP
Report to the Nation which was released this week.