Offering 22 of 34 AP classes and 33 dual-credit courses, Lake Central strives to prepare its students for college. On Jan. 16, the Advanced Placement Training and Initiative Program Indiana (AP-TIP) came to inform and evaluate Lake Central for a grant that would enhance and support the AP program.

The evaluation team traveled from their base at the University of Notre Dame to tour the school, observe AP classes and inform teachers and administrators about the grant. The grant comes from the National Math and Science Initiative and would provide Lake Central’s AP program with half the AP math and science fees, durable classroom goods, teacher training sessions, monetary cash rewards for students with qualifying scores of a 3,4, or 5 on the AP test, as well as cash incentives for AP teachers and administrators who reach AP test score goals.

“The [observation team] is looking for interaction between the teacher and student and whether or not the curriculum meets the AP standards. They like to see teachers that really enjoy their jobs and are not just willing to teach, but willing to listen,” Karen Morris, AP-TIP Program Director, said.

The grant’s main focus is to enhance AP participation and performance, aiming to have nearly all students enrolled in at least one AP class. In Karen Morris’s presentation, charts and graphs showed statistics ranging from college GPA to remediation rates that show the impact of AP classes on students’ futures.

The grant’s positive outcomes seen in other schools make it even more appealing for Lake Central’s AP program.

“If it wouldn’t be this year, then we would come back with a better understanding of what’s going on for next year. If not this year, the likelihood of getting [the grant] next year is extremely high,” Morris said.

The school will be notified of the grant by AP-TIP Indiana at the end of January.