Tahoma School District has been included in the second-annual Advanced Placement District Honor Roll.

“(We’re) honored,” said Terry Duty, principal of Tahoma High.  “There wasn’t too many schools that got that honor, so it’s pretty amazing.”

The honor is bestowed by the College Board, which administers the Advanced Placement program and the SAT. A total of 14 school districts in Washington and 367 in 43 states and Canada were included.

A school district can earn a place on the AP Honor Roll by increasing access to Advanced Placement coursework while at the same time maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on AP exams.

Since 2009, the Tahoma School District increased the number of students participating in AP while improving the percentage of students earning AP Exam scores of 3 or higher from 70 percent in 2009 to 74 percent in 2011.

Tahoma’s AP classes accounted for 762 seats in 2008-2009 and jumped to 917 seats in 2010-2011.

Duty credited two areas for the school’s success. One of them is what he called “stretch learning,” where students are encouraged to go beyond what they would normally take.

“Every kid should stretch themselves and excel, because sometimes it’s hard to get out of their comfort zone,” he said. “Kids take on that challenge and they do that when they take an AP class. This isn’t just an elite honors program.”

The other is the inclusion of AP environmental science to their 10th grade outdoor academy. In addition, Duty stated they have seen an increase in students taking AP math, as well as American and European History.

“Numbers are just significantly up,” he said. “Kids are finding ways to challenge themselves. A lot of them are being successful.”

The complete 2nd Annual AP District Honor Roll can be found at www.collegeboard.org.