ARVADA —James Molina is taking her first Advanced Placement class this year, and like many at Arvada High, she has been undeterred by challenges that have historically kept many students out of the academically rigorous classes.
“I was really nervous when I started, worried I’d fall behind or couldn’t keep up because it’d be so hard,” Molina said. “It’s challenged me but in a positive way that I can apply toward other things — like jobs, or just going up and talking to teachers in an articulate way like the young adult that I am.”
Molina is one in a wave of students who have jumped into AP programs at Arvada High thanks to that is at the tail end of a three-year run. The Legacy Grant program saw $30,000 in funding for books and technology, teacher development, money donated to offset test costs and the creation of a framework that has pulled in a wider and more diverse group of students taking AP classes.
The program has had a ripple effect through the school, dramatically increasing AP enrollment while also enhancing academic rigor. English instructor Kurt Hostetter said student enrollment in his AP classes has jumped from 17 to 60, and the students in his AP classes more accurately reflect the student body as a whole.
, sanctioned by the national nonprofit College Board, can boost a GPA, earn college credit and offer a competitive edge in college admissions.
“We changed the model entirely,” Hostetter said. “The old one was, the top 5 to 8 percent of students take AP classes — the valedictorians, salutatorians and 4.0 students. The goal of the Legacy model is open enrollment: There is no essay, no summer work, no G.P.A requirements.”
He added: “The only criteria is a student stepping up and saying ‘I want to try.’ “
Alejandra Terrazas said she came to the United States from Mexico when she was not quite 2 years old. She entered the public education system not knowing English but eventually landed on a gifted and talented track. Terrazas entered AP classes at Arvada High the first year of the Legacy program; three years later she is on track to graduate class valedictorian and is a finalist for a Bill and Melinda Gates scholarship.
“We are a school that has a lot of students on free and reduced lunch because their parents have lower incomes, and that’s part of my story,” Terrazas said. “My family couldn’t pay for upper educational classes for three years in row; this has opened up opportunities I wouldn’t have otherwise had.”
Colorado Education Initiative director Greg Hessee said the Legacy program was designed to increase the number and diversity of kids who are college ready. Over the last three years, Arvada High instructors received over 120 hours of supplemental training, something he said is the backbone of increasing long-term success after the grant money is gone.
“The students opting out of AP course work tend to be students from historically under-represented groups: students of color, of poverty, female students in math and science,” Hessee said. “We look for schools with high percentages of these students who are ready to engage in this kind of change that’s happened at Arvada High.”
Arvada High principal Kathy Norton said staff is optimistic that the groundwork has been laid to continue on the path of steering more students into AP classes when the grant money is no longer around next year.
“The shift that’s happened here is staff and kids have realized how critical it is to get a larger mass of kids into these classes, and the credit goes to the team of teachers reaching out to those students,” Norton said. “We will do our best to align our resources to continue the kind of programming this grant started.”
Austin Briggs: 303-954-1729, abriggs@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abriggs
