Students in De La Salle Collegiate’s robust Advanced Placement (AP) program, which includes 16 classes for the 2023-2024 school year, showed significant improvements on tests taken during the May 2023 testing period.  
 
According to Assistant Principal Chris Dean, the Advanced Placement organizational report showed that DLS scores were the highest in six years. Additionally, test scores have improved over the previous year for three consecutive years.  

The number of classes that averaged a “3” or higher on the AP exam is the highest in six years. Dean says the number went up over 60% from the 2022 test scores.  

“We were also able to maintain our college placements to Tier 1 colleges such as the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of Notre Dame, Illinois, Purdue, Penn State, Texas A&M, Indiana, and Wisconsin,” Dean said. “We also had a student who received an appointment to the US Naval Academy.” 

In six classes, students averaged 10-46% better than all AP students in Michigan. Those classes include: 

• AP Biology This class, taught by Mary Balamucki, was the most improved, raising the test average by almost 1.5 points (on a 5-point scale).  
•  AP Human Geography taught by Brent Castine, this class has averaged a “4” on the AP exam each of the last four years and has had the highest AP scores. 
• AP Calculus BC taught by Joe Novak 
• AP Spanish taught by Lindsay Tula 
• AP Government taught by Thaier Mukhtar 
• AP English Literature and Composition taught by Dave Kirck  

Annmarie Michol, Curriculum Administrator, noted that teachers have utilized resources provided by the college board to help assess student performance throughout the course. 

“Teachers have taken some professional development courses to guide their instruction and practice,” Michol added. 

Dean said that Advanced Placement French has been added to the offerings this year.  

In addition to the return of AP French, and the classes noted above, DLS offers AP courses in English Language, Calculus AB, Statistics, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics, Psychology, U.S. History, and Microeconomics.  

Part of the DLS curriculum offerings for over 40 years, the Advanced Placement program offers students the chance to earn college credits, and possible placement into higher-level courses.  Tests are rated on a 1-5 scale; the amount of credit offered to students varies, depending on the college.