Lehighton Area High School showed strong 2025 Advanced Placement exam performances in multiple subjects and areas for targeted improvement in others, officials said during a presentation Monday night.

The exams, taken in May mostly by sophomores, juniors and seniors, are scored on a scale of 1 to 5.

“We have some really good results here to take a look at,” Gretchen Laviolette, Lehighton’s director of Academic Programs and Technology, said during Monday’s workshop meeting. “Three is considered passing and often accepted as college credit … To be on par with state and global averages is good for us as well.”

District officials received the results in early July, along with instructional reports highlighting strengths and weaknesses. These were shared with AP teachers within days.

AP English Literature and Composition students turned in one of the district’s strongest performances. Twenty students tested, earning a mean score of 3.65, which was above both state and global averages. Ninety percent scored a 3 or higher.

“This class outperformed at least the state, if not both state and global, in all but two categories,” Laviollete said. “Excellent analysis in poetry, prose and literary arguments — very impressive.”

In AP Chemistry, seven students tested, achieving a mean score of 3.29 — close to the global average and just below the state average. Eighty-six percent earned a passing score.

“I am impressed with the gains,” Laviolette added. “Our chemistry teacher was really getting bummed about the results of what they were getting. So it’s nice to see some higher results now.”

Students excelled in equilibrium, chemical reactions, math routines, and compound structure and properties, but scored lower on specific free-response questions.

The district introduced AP U.S. History for the first time last year, enrolling 21 students. The course faced challenges, including a teacher’s two-month absence. Even so, 67% of students earned a passing score, and the mean score was 3.05, slightly below state and global averages.

“For being the first year, it’s quite impressive,” Laviolette said. “They had strong performance in period three — 1754 to 1800 — as well as period nine, the 1980s to present day.”

AP U.S. Government and Politics saw 19 students take the exam. The main group earned a mean score of 2.83, below state and global averages, with 50% scoring a 3 or higher.

“They did very well in political participation, data analysis, American political ideologies and beliefs,” Laviolette said. “But we do, again, want to focus on some free-response questions.”

AP Calculus AB results showed more room for improvement. Eight students tested, earning a mean score of 2.5, with 38% passing.

“That is definitely something that’s a little bit of a concern to us,” Laviolette said. “We do have some strengths … but we need some targeted support.”

Monday’s review closed with a broader conversation about participation in AP courses.

“Where my passion lies … is truly about opportunity and access, and I am willing to see lower mean scores if we start to see higher participation rates in the courses,” Superintendent Jason Moser said. “It’s not going to hurt them if they get a two in their junior or senior year. It’s going to help them, because they’re going to know this is literally what a college class looks like.”

Moser stressed that AP courses offer a nationally recognized curriculum and that performance reflects mastery of that standard.

“We want to stretch that out for students who are entering and taking a shot and challenging themselves,” he said.

Free-response writing emerged as a recurring weakness across several subjects. “That starts back in third grade,” Moser said. “As we start to narrow our focus on those instructional elements at the elementary through middle school, in the high school, we will also start to see our ability to write response questions on AP tests go up.”

The district tracks AP results over a rolling five-year period, though some subjects, like AP U.S. History, lack historical comparisons due to being newly offered. Other courses, such as Spanish, have been discontinued because of staffing changes.

“We just applaud them,” Laviolette said, “no matter what the result is, for putting themselves in that situation.”