BY Joe Parrino, NEW ERA STAFF WRITER

Heritage Christian Academy and University Heights Academy use the same stick to get students to take exams for college-credit. HCA also uses a carrot to motivate students to excel on the exam.

Both private high schools require students in Advanced Placement (AP) courses to take the corresponding exam.

“The test is the only measurable proof of the product,” said UHA upper school director Marvin Denison.

Denison said UHA teachers use the AP exam to gauge whether a particular course is challenging enough.

All AP courses at both schools have been audited by the College Board, the national organization that oversees the exam that awards college credit to students who score a passing grade.

This semester UHA has a total of 23 juniors and seniors enrolled in five AP courses: biology, calculus, chemistry, English literature and U.S. government. The academy’s AP program has been in place since 1994.

HCA has 20 AP students in two AP courses — U.S. history and AP European history courses.

Guidance counselor Lee Embry said HCA has fewer AP offerings because the program is younger — kicked off in 2004 — and because most of the college-level classes do not fulfill core credit.

Every HCA student must complete 27 credit hours of academic coursework to graduate.

Only one AP class can substitute for any of those credits. AP European History and AP Chemistry — not offered this year — are treated as electives, and students’ schedules only allow for one elective per year.

AP U.S. History is the exception.

Michael Ruess, a history teacher who moved from The Clarksville Academy to HCA last spring, is now in his fifth year of teaching AP classes.

Ruess spent Thursday’s second period class lecturing 16 students about the territory grab that characterized colonial North America. The lesson covered economic theories like mercantilism, colonial battle strategy and vignettes of historic figures like George Washington.

“How did Big George start the (French and Indian) War?” Ruess asked students.

Ruess said his AP class delves deeper into the how’s and why’s of history. An entire class will be devoted to the role Washington played in the founding of the nation.

A high school level U.S. history course skims over subjects and is mostly concerned with what happened, Ruess said.

Students in his class must read the chapter of a college-level textbook before class and come prepared to define key terms. There is a quiz every Thursday and a test on Friday.

Ruess said he prepares his class for the exam by giving them weekly writing practice. Students learn how to write a complete response to question about historical documents as well as how to answer more open-ended questions.

Students are often assigned an essay over the weekend.

Ruess said his experience with AP courses makes him confident that some HCA students will score a perfect 5 on the 2008 exam.

After a lackluster performance on last year’s AP exams, HCA has been trying to add incentive to test excellence. Formerly, grades for AP classes at HCA were weighted regardless of how the student scored on the exam.

But in 2007, two of seven students passed the AP U.S. History exam. None passed the AP Chemistry exam.

So the HCA board decided to weight grades only if a student achieves a passing score — a 3 or above — on the national exam. This prevents students from taking the course just to bump up their grade point average and then “bombing out” on the exam, Ruess said.

Ruess said his class also emphasizes the exam’s other opportunities — including saving hundreds and thousands of dollars in tuition payments. He believes some students understand while others are more concerned with GPA.

At UHA, Denison sees many of GPA-conscious students. The school grades AP courses on a college scale. While regular classes require a 93 percent for an “A,” AP courses set the minimum at 90 percent.

“That allows them to take the course without their GPA suffering too much,” Denison said.

At UHA, however, grade weighting is not tied to exam performance. It hasn’t seemed to hurt scores.

Last year’s UHA seniors average passing scores on seven different AP exams: biology (3.3), calculus BC (3.6), chemistry (3.6), English language/composition (3.2), English literature (3.5), U.S. government (4.2) and U.S. history (4).

The AP programs at the county’s two public high schools recently have been criticized, in part because of low scores earned on the national AP exams. Hopkinsville High School requires its students to take the AP exams but Christian County High School does not.

At an Aug. 23 school board meeting, board member Dr. Karen Dougherty said, “I think this speaks in a very troubling way to really low expectations of our best students.”

The principals of HHS and CCHS told school board members they are working on ways to improve their AP programs.

Denison said he reiterates the value of earning college credit in his classes. Denison said most college and university programs accept these scores as college-credit but not universally.

Students should investigate the institution’s policy on AP exams closely before applying, Denison cautioned.

JOE PARRINO can be reached at 887-3239 or jparrino@kentuckynewera.com.