Cheryl Shipper, a high school administrator, told the Rockland School Committee on Nov. 24 that Advanced Placement participation and scores have risen steadily over the past five years, with more than 300 exams taken this past year and an average score that has climbed to about 3.28.

“We are very proud of our advanced placement scores of 2025,” Shipper said, noting the district offers 14 AP courses and is considering adding an AP business class if student interest and qualified staff align. She highlighted subject-level improvements, including biology passing rising to 88.9% (average score about 3.36), chemistry reaching 100% passing with an average score increase, environmental science at 86.4% passing, and European history improving from 68.2% to 100% passing with an average rising from 3.14 to 4.14.

Shipper also described operational challenges during testing: a College Board platform outage affected the AP psychology administration, delaying roughly 58 students and forcing staff to manage long testing sessions and make-up arrangements. “Some of those kids did not get on until two hours after the time… some stayed here until 4:30, almost 5:00,” she said, praising teachers and students for persevering.

Committee members asked how many distinct students were represented by the exam counts (some students take multiple exams). Shipper said she did not have that breakdown on hand but would provide it on request and confirmed that juniors and seniors make up the majority of AP participants, with some freshmen enrolled in AP biology.

The presentation closed with committee praise for students and staff and a plan to continue monitoring weaker areas and explore additional course offerings if demand and instructional capacity justify expansion.

The committee took no formal vote on AP programming at the meeting; the item was presented as an informational update.