South Putnam High School named to AP District Honor Roll

Sunday, November 24, 2013
South Putnam High School was recently named to the Advanced Placement (AP) District Honor Roll by the College Board. This is the second time in three years that South Putnam has received this honor, which has been made possible with help from (from left) Dean of Students Dan Bain, U.S. History teacher Zach Love, Assistant Principal Troy Burgess, Biology teacher Natalie Hodge, counselor Brian Garner, Calculus teacher Tiffany Dickson, Counselor Mark Wildman, Economics teacher Julia Crone, Principal Kieth Puckett and English teacher Harriett Dobson. Not pictured is AP chemistry teacher Theresa Doud.

South Putnam High School has been named to the Advanced Placement (AP) District Honor Roll by the College Board. Only 12 schools in all of Indiana qualified for this distinction.

South Putnam qualified by increasing access to AP course work while simultaneously maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning scores of three or higher on AP Exams.

Reaching these goals indicates that these honor roll districts are successfully identifying motivated, academically prepared students who are likely to benefit from rigorous AP course work.

This is the second time in three years that South Putnam High School has been honored by the College Board for their work with advanced placement students--a remarkable fact considering that AP courses did not exist at the school just seven years ago.

"As with any honor our school receives, our teachers are the key to our success. As a group, these AP teachers have taken ownership of the program, and are master motivators for our students. I am extremely proud of them," South Putnam Principal Kieth Puckett said. "To increase passing percentages over three years while also increasing participation is quite a feat. We have great kids at South Putnam who respond to their teachers' efforts. The students who have participated in AP the past three years are going to do well in college and become great contributors to our society."

South's AP teachers honored include Harriett Dobson, Tiffany Dickson, Natalie Hodge, Zach Love, Theresa Doud and Julia Crone. According to the College Board, inclusion on the 4th Annual AP District Honor Roll is based on the examination of three years of AP data, from 2011 to 2013, for the following criteria:

* Increased participation/access to AP by at least four percent in large districts, at least six percent in medium districts, and at least 11 percent in small districts.

* Improved performance levels when comparing the percentage of students in 2013 scoring a 3 or higher to those in 2011, unless the district has already attained a performance level at which more than 70 percent of its AP students are scoring a three or higher.

Adding rigor to coursework has been a consistent process over the past eight years for South Putnam. The High School was awarded an "A" letter grade in 2012 by the Indiana Department of Education, and the school experienced a record graduation rate (94 percent) in 2013.

In addition, the school boasts a discipline rate that has steadily fallen. Remarkably, South Putnam students only experience a discipline referral once every 1000 class hours.

"Although we had some teacher turnover in our early years, the buy-in by the staff and the continuity of administration have created a great culture at South Putnam," Puckett explained. "Hiring Dan Bain as assistant principal in the beginning was a key factor in our success. Having the same superintendent, principal assistant, guidance director and athletic director for seven straight years is a good situation for a small school, and our students have obviously thrived."

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