Rising to the Top - AP and College Now Courses

While we have looked at the core and non-core courses that will be available in the merged school district, there is another subset of courses that have truly suffered within the area as a result of cuts and budget restrictions. These are the "College Now" and "Advance Placement" (AP) courses.

College Now courses are basically college courses taught by high school teachers where if a student passes the course they can receive college course credit. AP courses are college level coursework that's a bit more stringent in that a student needs to pass the course and achieve a higher level of accomplishment in order to get college credit.

In a merged district, almost 25 AP or College Now courses (combined) will be available to students ! That would be about ONE out of every SIX courses offered in the H.I.M. district that would be either an AP or College Now class !

This is a tremendous boost for those wanting to attend college by letting them earn college credit before they actually graduate from high school ! At present, Herkimer only offers about a dozen such courses, Mohawk offers less than ten, and Ilion offers about 18 College Now or AP courses. Students presently in all three districts could have their opportunities for college credit work increase substantially if the three districts merge.