In a first for Old Bight High School on Cat Island, a cohort of three students is attempting the school’s first foray into Advanced Placement (AP) classes — exams that test students’ ability to perform at a college level. Exams are administered in May each year and represent the culmination of college-level work in a given discipline in a secondary school setting.

Eleventh grade student Philesha Taylor and 12th grade boys Terran Moss and McKellen Rolle are enrolled in the first AP offering — a Language and Composition course which requires students to develop evidence-based analytic and argumentative essays that proceed through several stages or drafts. Students evaluate, synthesize and cite research to support their arguments.

Male educator, Carroll Johnson, a 45-year veteran teaches the class; he is assisted by online tutor Carlson Limerick, who formerly taught at private institutions in New Providence and who is now resident in New Jersey. Limerick who taught AP courses for many years connects with Johnson and the students via Skype and a Promethean Board, an interactive whiteboard that was installed at the school in October 2012.

The pre-requisite for students to be able to enroll in the AP Class was for them to be graded at “C” or above in the Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) exam. Philesha, the youngest of the three AP students after the initial two weeks of the course said she found it different but interesting because it was something new.

“It’s a broader version of what we’ve learned already so far,” said Philesha.

As for the distance learning aspect to the program she initially thought it would be awkward, having to listen to an instructor who wasn’t standing before her in the classroom setting, but she said that Limerick has a way of teaching that makes it fun and exciting.

“He makes it easy, so it’s been interesting so far,” said the student who scored a “B” in the BGCSE Literature and a “C” grade in English Language in 10th grade.

The threesome were able to take advantage of the AP course because their principal Jerome Forbes wanted more for his students who sit national external exams early — especially his gifted students who he said were basically just sitting around in their final year.

“I started questioning what these students could do once they pass the BGCSE,” he said. “I looked at them doing the SAT [Scholastic Aptitude Test] on Cat Island, because what happened in the past was our students would fly to New Providence and sit the exam at St. Anne’s School without preparation, and they weren’t always proud of their SAT scores. I started to look more towards what they could do, and touched base with the private schools and they turned me on to the College Board and they told me about the Advanced Placement program. It was ideal,” said Forbes.

The principal submitted the documentation needed that included the history of the school, what they offer and the teacher’s profiles. He spent his summer getting the requisite information together. Old Bight High School also received approval as a test center which means that the students will be able to sit their AP Language and Composition exam at home in May 2016.

It’s still early into the program, but Forbes likes what he sees. He’s also ecstatic to put the Promethean boards as a distance learning tool and for the students to be able to use them outside of the lessons that came with the software or as a projection screen, or an interactive tool.

“It’s interesting to see the students talking with him as if he’s just in front of the classroom. To them it’s like no difference because they’re talking and interacting live. He [Limerick] asks questions. They do the assignments, bring the work back, he marks it and we have a scanner there if he needs to see, and a moveable camera that can actually zoom over the books so he could see what they’re writing and mark it the same time. And with the small amount of students it’s ideal,” said Forbes. “To me this is the wave of the future.”

Forbes oversees an enrollment of 105 students at Old Bight High School where he took over as principal in September 2012, transferring in from Crooked Island High School.

In his time on Cat Island he said he has seen his students come to the understanding of an online education and get more excited about what the world has to offer after he shared stories with them of young people who have gone on to do great things.

“By speaking to them and showing them that the future is within their reach if they do certain things, they’re very cooperative. They have the vision and we have to build that vision with them. Most of them are now interested in university education, as opposed to being a police officer or Defence Force officer, or landing a government job. They’re now thinking bigger — that they can actually do this, because they’re now reading about the College Board and reading about universities more. Their eyes have been opened to more possibilities,” said Forbes.

While three students stand out for comprising Old Bight High School’s first AP Class, there are students who also did well on their recent external exams, including Erma Marcellus, who sat and passed seven Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) exams in ninth grade. She scored five “A” grades — health science, general science, language, math and social studies. She received “B” grades in Family and Consumer Science and religious studies.

Lanai Russell who sat the BJC math exam in seventh grade and passed with a “C” grade and made history at the school in the process.

“I’m very proud of Erma. This is the third year in a row that we would have had a student pass five BJCs with at least five ‘A’ grades.” In 2014 Old Bight High School had a student pass with seven “A” grades; and in 2013 another passed seven exams, all with “A” grades.

“What was outstanding was Erma was actually able to do a lot of work herself. We had to scratch health science off our timetable because with only one science teacher, the teacher was only able to teach biology and general science, but Erma wanted to do health science, and that’s one of the subjects she got an ‘A’ in. She was very focused. You would see her studying and reading all the time.”

The principal said he sometimes waits for his teachers to tell him that they have a gifted student, but he said he sometimes has students like Erma, Philesha and Lanai who come to him and demand to be pushed. When the students do that Forbes pushes them right back and demands that they prove themselves.

“When Philesha came into Grade 10 she had to choose between literature and history, and we told her she could only pick one. She wants to be a lawyer, so she selected history, but wanted to do the literature, so we gave her the list of the eight books and she had read all of those books by the end of September,” he added.

“We had told her that she had to prove to us that she wanted to do the subject. By December her grades were way up there. Because she had read the books and understood it at a deeper level, we allowed her to do the [BGCSE] exam. We said it would be a travesty if we didn’t let her do it. She got the best grade out of the [Old Bight High School] students; everyone else received a ‘C’ grade.”

As for Lanai, he said her parents Maurice and Lana Russell felt their daughter was gifted in math and approached him about their daughter sitting the Math BJC in seventh grade. If she did, that would have been historic for the school, as no student had sat a BJC exam as a seventh grade student.

“I said to [her parents] not to put strain on the teacher and she could sit the exam if they could prove to me that she’s a genius in math. The mother set out to prove it to me.”

Lanai’s parents got her a tutor, and Forbes said before he registered her for the exam in December, after he saw her getting “A” grades in math. When she sat the BJC exam Lanai made history. Despite the students’ success, Forbes said parental involvement was important to the successful formula.