The release of Newsweek's ranking of high schools based upon AP or IB tests taken per student is a very public reminder of a stumble, which occurred at Herricks High School during the 2003-04 school year after years of steady increases.

At the end of the 2002-03 school year 287 Herricks students took 659 AP exams. At that point we expected Herricks students to take 670 - 690 AP exams in spring 2004. In the middle of summer 2004 we learned that Herricks students had actually taken only 634. While we were then looking forward to the fact that we expected students to take 775 - 790 exams this spring (spring 2004) and we could therefore believe that what had gone astray had already been corrected, we were deeply disappointed. Accordingly, we looked at each department and each teacher involved - original enrollment requests, enrollment in September, enrollment mid year and the number of exams taken in spring 2004. Discrepancies were reviewed in detail to determine their cause and whether any problems still needed to be addressed.

That stumble has now resulted in dropping Herricks ranking in the Newsweek report to number 245. Had our students taken the number we had originally expected in May 2004 Herricks would have ranked between 190 and 205, roughly similar to where we were in 2003 for the spring 2002 AP exams.

Looking forward we currently expect Herricks students to take roughly 787 AP exams this spring. Assuming a divisor of 315 that would yield a number for the Newsweek report of 2.498 which would have placed Herricks 150th in the U.S. this week. Looking further forward, should Herricks students take 1000 - 1050 AP exams next spring, as they are currently scheduled to, that would yield a number for the Newsweek report of 3.175 to 3.33 which would place us 51st to 61st in the U.S. Other districts may also see increases so the actual rank may be different but this would represent a substantial step forward for Herricks.

Thus far the increase in AP enrollment in Herricks has been achieved without a diminution in the quality of the results. Eighty three (83) - 86 percent of Herricks AP grades have historically been 3's, 4's or 5's and they have remained at that level the past couple of years.

Entrance into AP classes must still be earned. Our long-term objective is to have every student who expects to go to college take at least one college level course (AP) before graduation. This would be 90 percent of the graduating class. In the process of doing so, however, we want to ensure that all students who enroll are fully prepared before they start the classes and have demonstrated this by their performance in relevant lower level courses so they can achieve top level scores (3 -5) when they take the exams.

(Dr. Bierwirth is superintendent of the Herricks School District)