High Scorers Year After Year Lc Scholars Do Well On Three Advanced Placement Tests

Sally Pfeifer, who teaches Advanced Placement English classes at Lewis and Clark High School, has students who live in patrician mansions, students from the apartments that front Second Avenue and students from rental houses that dot the South Hill. In short, students from nearly every background.

“I had one kid, one year, who lived in his car. He had no parents, but he wanted to be here,” she said.

Wherever they reside, whatever the backgrounds, Lewis and Clark High School students consistently produce a higher-than-average number of students in Spokane School District 81 who earn perfect scores - fives - on Advanced Placement (AP) tests in English, history and biology.

Students at Ferris High School earn top scores in AP mathematics.

The reasons for Lewis and Clark’s high scores, particularly in English and history, are many - a tradition of academic excellence, high standards and teachers “in the know.”

Among district officials, the consensus is that LC teachers are more familiar with some of the tests than their district peers.

Three LC teachers grade AP examinations for the national organization.

Cynthia Lambarth, associate superintendent of educational services, credits Pfeifer and history teacher Norm Gall with providing students with some insight into AP testing standards.

Both teachers are graders for Advanced Placement exams. They see AP exams from all over the world, she said.

Gall took a week off from school last year to grade AP examinations. During that time, he estimates, he graded more than 1,300 papers.

Each year the national Advanced Placement Program receives more than 147,000 examinations in history, English, biology and mathematics.

“They (Lewis and Clark AP teachers) certainly know the standard, so their students have a more realistic appraisal of how they’re doing,” Lambarth said.

However, Pfeifer said the school’s AP teachers emphasize writing skills in their classes.

“We don’t teach the test,” Pfeifer said. AP examinations in English and history are essay tests, and graders pay particular attention to good writing, she said.

The AP program is offered at every high school in the district. Students can earn full or partial college credit if they achieve a minimum score of three on an AP test.

But Lewis and Clark is not the only school in the district that excels on AP exams.

Spokane School District 81 has higher average AP test scores than Western Washington, the United States or the world.

That trend began in 1989 and still continues, Lambarth said.

At many Spokane schools, AP classes are linked, and teachers confer with one another when they create assignments.

This fall, AP English students in Pfeifer’s class read “The Crucible,” a literary account of the Salem Witch Trials.

In Gall’s AP history class, the witch trials were studied in historical and political context.

Two perspectives on the same event produce lively discussions, Gall said. And an opportunity for students to develop critical thinking skills.

Students at Lewis and Clark say their high scores are due to positive peer pressure. Earning good grades or studying hard doesn’t make a student an outcast.

“The cool thing here is to be in AP classes - instead of at some other schools, where getting F’s is cool,” said Heather Embrey, a junior in Gall’s history class.

Last spring, of 60 English honors students who took the AP test, 52 passed the test. Fifteen of those students had perfect scores.

Lewis and Clark serves a diverse student population, including many from low-income families.

But at LC, mom’s or dad’s occupation or bank account have little to do with learning, Pfeifer said.

“Our parents understand the value of education. I say hats off to these parents,” she said.

Any student can enroll in honors classes, which is just what Chana Benenson did.

Benenson, who moved here from Boise at the beginning of the school year, enrolled in the honors program, and likes the challenge, even though she admits it’s “a lot harder than the school’s regular classes” or the ones she took in Boise.

“Everything’s different,” Benenson said. “We have a different way of taking notes. It’s harder, but you learn a lot. I’m going to try it for at least a semester.”

A surprising number of students with unexceptional grades turn up in junior-level AP classes, Pfeifer said.

Sometimes they decide it’s time to start working hard. Sometimes they’re just bored, she said.

Indeed, some of the program’s “successes” over the years have been bright but aimless students who lost interest in school when regular classes failed to challenge them, Pfeifer said.

Once students pass an AP test, many in-state and out-of-state universities will grant students full or partial college credits.

The benefit? Students can skip redundant introductory classes and cut college tuition costs.

“I had one student enter WSU as a second year sophomore,” Pfeifer said.

The value of the program extends beyond perfect or passing scores.

Pfeifer said she regularly receives letters from former students who say the writing skills they acquired in the AP program have helped them earn good grades on college essay exams and term papers.

For students who don’t pass an AP exam, the rewards are still substantial, said Jeff Norton, who teaches junior AP English.

“They get a dang good education, even if they don’t pass the test,” Norton said. “The test is almost ancillary.”

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