Demopolis High School senior English teacher Rachel White set a goal at the start of the school year that all of her Advanced Placement English literature students would earn a qualifying score – a 3, 4 or 5 – on the exam.

When scores from the May AP exam were released July 5, White’s eyes filled with tears as she saw that her students met what she later described as a “ridiculous” goal: 100% of her students earned a qualifying score.

“There are no words to describe how proud I am of my AP Lit students…but I’ll try my hand at it anyway,” she wrote on Facebook. The course offers college-level rigor, and in many colleges, a qualifying score equals college credit, saving thousands of dollars in college tuition.

“Over the course of the year,” White continued, “I watched them stretch their analytical limits and blossom into poetry experts and brilliant writers. We honed our strengths and polished our weaknesses. We discussed works and critiqued each other. They pushed themselves in new ways and absolutely blew me away.”

AP Executive Trevor Packer tweeted results of AP exams by subject in June. In total, 77% of students who took the AP Lit exam earned a qualifying score.

Some students pushed back when she told them about her goal, White said. Some pointed out that it would only take one student to thwart the goal.

But White had faith and a plan. She told them they were a small group so conferences and one-on-one learning would be easier. “We’re going to make a plan for each individual person of how they’re going to qualify for this test.”

The class was smaller than usual, 12 students versus 30 and 40 in previous years, White said, and that allowed her to spend more time with each student during class period. “We were like a little family in there.”

AP classes were available in 237 public and 45 private schools in Alabama according to information from the College Board, which administers the Advanced Placement program.

While the 2022-23 school year information isn’t out yet, statewide, out of 46,950 graduates in the Class of 2022, 12,950, or 28%, took at least one AP exam during high school and 6,356 or 13.5% earned a qualifying score. Nationally, 22% of graduates in the class of 2022 earned a qualifying score.

The number of students taking AP courses statewide is not provided by the College Board.

AP Lit is one of nine AP courses available for students at the high school. If students pass five AP courses during high school, students earn an AP endorsement on their high school diploma.

She just completed her fourth year teaching AP Lit. White started teaching in 2009 in Pell City, and when her family moved to Demopolis in 2017, she taught for one year at Greensboro High School. In 2018, White started teaching English at Demopolis High School and became the AP Lit teacher in 2019. Along with AP Literature, she teaches senior English classes.

“It just really made me so proud and so proud for them that they have this accomplishment under their belts,” White said. “And now they all know that they can do this.”