Eight local high schools are 2016 AP Honor Schools

Eight local high schools are among 272 in Georgia to receive honors this year for achievement or participation in Advanced Placement.

The 2016 AP Honor Schools in Muscogee County are Columbus, Northside and Spencer. The other local schools on the prestigious list are Callaway, Harris County, LaGrange, Marion County and Troup County.

AP is a national academic program that allows students to take college-level courses and exams to earn college credit while still in high school. The College Board administers AP, along with the SAT.

The AP Honor Schools, based on the results from last school year’s AP courses and exams, comprise six categories. They are, listed here with the number of Georgia schools in parentheses and the names of the local schools in that category:

AP Challenge Schools (61): Callaway, Marion County and Spencer. They have enrollments of 900 or fewer but still had students who took AP exams in the four core areas (English, math, science and social studies).

AP Access and Support Schools (49): None locally. They had at least 30 percent of their AP exams taken by students who identified themselves as black or Hispanic and 30 percent of all their AP exams earned scores of 3 points or higher out of 5 points, meaning they qualified to earn college credit for those courses.

AP Humanities Schools (132): Columbus, Northside and Troup County. They had students who took AP exams in at least one English language course, two social science courses, one fine arts course and one world language course.

AP Merit Schools (61): Columbus. At least 20 percent of their student population took at least one AP exam and at least 50 percent of their scores were 3 points or higher out of 5 points, meaning they qualified to earn college credit for those courses.

AP STEM Schools (199): Callaway, Columbus, Harris County, LaGrange, Northside, Spencer and Troup County. They had students who took AP exams in at least two math courses and two science courses.

AP STEM Achievement Schools (127): Callaway, Columbus, Harris County, LaGrange and Troup County. They had students who took AP exams in at least two math courses and two science courses and at least 40 percent of their scores were 3 points or higher out of 5 points, meaning they qualified to earn college credit for those courses.

Earlier this week, the Ledger-Enquirer reported that Carver was one of only five Georgia high schools to receive an AP Champion Award this year, recognizing efforts to eliminate barriers that restrict access to the program.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 5:33 AM with the headline "Eight local high schools are 2016 AP Honor Schools."