AP in a District
Colton Joint Unified School District, CA
Colton Joint Unified School District was selected by the College Board as an AP District of the Year last year — honored for increasing access to AP course work while simultaneously increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on AP Exams.
Jerry Almendarez, superintendent for Colton Joint Unified School District, attributes Colton’s success to its teachers, who serve as role models, offering students real-life examples of how to prepare for college, earn their degrees, and fulfill their dreams for the future. “We have a lot of teachers who have graduated from our district, myself included, that have gone to college and have come back and … have provided the connection to the students they are currently serving,” said Almendarez. “There are a lot of caring people here who care not only for improving [the] students’ academic performance but also for the human being.”
This special connection has paid off. Ignacio Cabrera, principal of Bloomington High School in Colton, proudly reported that “one of the programs that has excelled is our math program. We’ve had a three-year run of over 98 percent of our students succeeding — and the thing that is really unusual … is that 100 percent succeeded just this past year.”
