SYRACUSE — Wawasee Community School Corp. announced it is one of 433 school districts in the U.S. and Canada being honored by the College Board with placement on the seventh annual AP district honor roll.

To be included on the honor roll, the school corporation had to, since 2014, increase the number of students participating in advanced placement courses while also increasing or maintaining the percentage of students earning AP exam scores of three or higher.

Wawasee High School has expanded AP courses offered for college bound students. Those students have passed AP exams at higher levels. Current AP courses offered are biology II, calculus, chemistry, physics, statistics (the newest AP offering) and U.S. history. There is also an English 12 advanced college prep course offered from Indiana University-Bloomington.

“We are always looking to expand AP courses offered,” said Kim Nguyen, WHS principal. “We really push AP and dual credit courses,” saying between 67 and 70 percent of the student body is enrolled in either an AP or dual credit course. Although Wawasee doesn’t have a very large selection of AP courses, access to those courses has been opened up to allow more students to enroll, Nguyen said.

National data from 2016 shows among black/African-American, Hispanic and Native American students with a high degree of readiness for AP, only about half are participating. The first step to getting more of these students to participate is to give them access. Courses must be made available, gate keeping must stop and doors must be equitably opened. The school corporation said it is committed to expanding the availability of AP courses among prepared and motivated students of all backgrounds.

In 2016, more than 4,000 colleges and universities around the world received AP scores for college credit, advanced placement, or both, and-or consideration in the admissions process.

Inclusion on the seventh annual AP honor roll is based on a review of three years of AP data, from 2014 to 2016, looking across 37 AP exams, including world language and culture. The following criteria were used:

• Increase participation/access to AP by at least 4 percent in large districts, at least 6 percent in medium districts and at least 11 percent in small districts.

• Increase or maintain the percentage of exams taken by black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native students.

• Improve or maintain performance levels when comparing the 2016 percentage of students scoring a three or higher to the 2014 percentage, unless the district has already attained a performance level at which more than 70 percent of its AP students earn a three or higher.

Wawasee is a medium sized district, noted Nguyen.