Over the eight years since Murphy Oil Corporation announced the El Dorado Promise Scholarship Program, the El Dorado School District has taken action to make sure its students are prepared for college. One of the many results of their efforts has been a dramatic increase in Advanced Placement course enrollment and offerings.

After the announcement of the Promise on January 22, 2007, new programs were put in place as early as kindergarten to ensure that students were aware of their opportunity to go to college and were academically prepared to enroll after their high school graduation. Pre-AP classes now begin in middle school and students and teachers alike are demanding a more rigorous curriculum.

As a result, AP enrollment at El Dorado High School (EHS) has increased, more than doubling since 2005. According to a study by the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas (OEP), the percentage of the EHS student body who were taking one or more AP tests in 2006, prior to the Promise, was about 11%. By 2014, nearly one quarter of the high school population was taking at least one AP course. (Figure 1) Both the number of AP tests taken and the number of AP students taking one or more tests has risen since the pre-Promise period. In 2005-06, El Dorado students took 227 AP tests; in 2013-14, the number of AP tests had grown to 560 tests. The number of students taking AP tests more than doubled after the El Dorado Promise was announced, growing from 147 students in 2005-06 to 323 students in 2013-14. (Figure 2)

In addition, students have more options of AP classes to take. The number of AP course offerings grew from seven in 2000-01

2015E I G H T H A N N I V E R S A R Y

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EHS Students Prepare for College; Increase AP Course Enrollment

to 20 in 2014-15. Classes added since the Promise was announced include AP French Language and Government and Politics. Courses in Computer Science, Art, and advanced-level AP Chemistry and Physics have also been offered at the requests of the students.

Not only are El Dorado students requesting and enrolling in these AP courses, but their test scores also reflect that they are learning the material that will prepare them for college courses. Using data from the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights Data Collection Database for the 2011-12 school year, the OEP determined that El Dorado tested 98% of all students who took AP courses, which means that AP test passage rates truly reflect how much all students learned in AP classes. When looking at AP passage rate

EHS Class of 2014 is pictured above with Bob Watson, Superintendent of the El Dorado Public School System, at Academic Signing Day. Watson retired at the end of the 2014 school year.

1,588 >>> Promise Scholars to date

Promise ScholarsPAY IT FORWARD

Promise Scholars visited their alma mater just a few weeks before the

eighth anniversary of the El Dorado Promise to “Pay It Forward” by sharing

their college experiences with current El Dorado High School students.

Nineteen EHS alumni who graduated between 2006 and 2014 told

students the importance of taking advantage of their educational

opportunities while in high school in order to capitalize on the El Dorado

Promise to go to college. Two successful EHS graduates of 2006, the year

before the Promise was announced, recounted their college experiences

as a comparison to those who received the Promise scholarship.

The Scholars visited 17 different classes including all core subject areas,

arts, and electives to reach a diverse group of students with stories of

how to prepare for and what to expect when going to college and their

personal best and worst experiences at college. Seven of the nineteen

Scholars have already graduated college and two are currently working

on master’s degrees. Several have returned to El Dorado using their

degrees to work for companies like Murphy USA, ThermaFlite and the

El Dorado News Times.

Promise Scholars represented the following colleges and universities:

Rhodes College

Southern Arkansas University

University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Arkansas State University

Texas Christian University

Harding University

Ouachita Baptist University

Newman University

Hendrix College

University of Central Arkansas

trends over time, OEP found the percentage of students passing one or more test has increased or remained steady since 2006, even while the enrollment count for the courses has multiplied. Traditionally, when schools expand access to AP courses the passage rates fall; however, El Dorado has defied this trend and continues to hold a steady pass rate.

The El Dorado Promise has worked with the school district’s own initiatives to create a college-going culture from kindergarten to graduation. Student interest and success in AP courses shows that EHS students are doing their part to academically prepare for their futures as college-bound Promise Scholars.

Figure 1: Percent of High School Population Taking One or More AP Test, 2000-01 to 2013-14

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

2000-01

2000-01

2005-06

2005-06

2001-02*

2001-02*

Promise

Year 2

006-07

Promise

Year 2

006-07

2003-04*

2003-04*

2008-09

2008-09

2011-12

2011-12

2002-03*

2002-03*

2007-08

2007-08

2010-11

2010-11

2004-05*

2004-05*

2009-10

2009-10

2012-13

2012-13

2013-14

2013-14

Figure 2: Number of AP Tests and Students Taking One or More AP Test, 2000-01 to 2013-14

*Data were not available for these years, so values were estimated. Dotted lines indicates years for which estimated values were used.

*Data were not available for these years, so values were estimated. Dotted lines indicates years for which estimated values were used.

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% of HS Population Taking AP Tests

AP Tests and Students from 2000-14

Total AP Tests Total # AP Students Taking Tests