More honors for area schools

Grissom, Bob Jones cited in nationwide 'Challenge Index'

Tack on another accolade in less than a week for Huntsville's Grissom High School and Madison's Bob Jones High School.

The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine Wednesday named the schools among the state's ten best for encouraging its students to take college-level classes, such as Advanced Placement courses.

Grissom and Bob Jones placed fifth and 10th on the publications' "Challenge Index" for Alabama public high schools.

The nationwide Challenge Index includes nearly 1,400 schools - the top 5 percent of all 27,000 public high schools that encourage students to take Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or Cambridge tests.

Last Friday, U.S. News and World Report named Grissom and Bob Jones among the nation's best for student achievement and preparing students for college.

Grissom principal Tom Drake praised his students for exceeding academic challenges from teachers.

"We ask them to do more and they do it well," Drake said.

As part of the high standards set at Grissom, Drake said, students are pushed to take at least one Advanced Placement course by their senior year.

He said teachers and students in these classes meet regularly on weekends and Wednesday nights to study for tests.

"It's amazing to me the dedication we have from students and teachers," Drake said. "They really step up to the plate."

It's the second year in a row for Bob Jones to be named in the top 5 percent and Dr. Julie Finley, assistant principal at Bob Jones said the latest recognition is one more piece of affirmation to the efforts of the system.

"We want to provide the most challenging and relevant curriculum we can offer," she said. "This recognition is exciting because with it the community can see the decisions we've been making at Bob Jones High School are truly affecting our instruction and because of that we are gaining local, state and national recognition that we aspire to in our district's mission statement."

At Grissom, a new school system policy could encourage more students to take Advanced Placement classes next school year, Drake said.

Starting in August, students who take honors classes will get an extra half-point toward their overall grade point average for each course. For example, a student who gets an A in an honors class for the semester would get a 4.5 GPA for that class instead of a 4. The extra half-point, Drake said, would boost a student's overall GPA.

If more students take honors classes as underclassmen, Drake said, they might feel prepared to take Advanced Placement courses, which he said help prepare students for college.