AP Scholars 2026: Inside FPD's Approach to Academic Excellence 

Every fall, a new group of FPD students walks into an AP classroom wondering the same quiet thing: Am I actually ready for this? It's a fair question. College admissions have never been more competitive. The classes are harder. The reading is denser. The exams don't grade on a curve for effort. For a fifteen-year-old or their parent, watching from the sideline,  it's easy to wonder whether "college-level" work belongs in high school at all, and whether their child will be pushed forward, or just pushed under. 

AP’s at FPD  

At FPD we don’t hand a student an AP syllabus and wish them luck. Our faculty have spent years building a path that takes a student from “I think I can” to “I know I can”  one skill, one class, one exam at a time. That's the difference between rigor that overwhelms and rigor that forms. 

“Not only does enrollment in AP courses in high school thoroughly prepare students for the rigors of college work, but research also consistently shows that students who take even one AP course in high school are more likely to be successful in their freshman year of college and graduate college in 4 years.  

Dr. Kristy Alvarez, Ed. D., Academic Dean

The plan: rigor you can actually see 

This isn't rigor from a textbook. It's Mrs. Smith's AP Chemistry students running a reaction so vivid it leaves its mark on the ceiling  proof a concept actually happened, not just a formula memorized for a test. It's AP Literature students discovering that analysis can be creative, wrestling with the rhythm and defiance of Harlem Renaissance poetry until they find their own voice inside someone else's. It's the quiet, unglamorous hours in Mrs. Conger's art room, redoing the same brushstroke until an AP Art portfolio finally says what a student meant it to say. It's standing up in Coach Nix's AP Government class to defend your read on a landmark Supreme Court case  building the same presentation muscle they'll need in a college seminar, a job interview, a courtroom. 

That's what FPD's plan actually looks like up close: not a syllabus, but a hundred small moments of a student being pushed to go further than they thought they could — and a teacher standing right there with them when they do. 

What it made possible 

This year, that plan produced results our students can carry with them for the rest of their lives: 

• 51 students named AP Scholars 

• 15 earned AP Scholar with Distinction, the College Board's highest tier 

• 22 students scored a perfect 5 on at least one AP exam 

• 337 AP exams passed, collectively, by this group alone 

• Achievement across 10th, 11th, and 12th grade — proof this isn't a senior-year sprint, it's a school-wide standard 

Numbers like these aren't the goal. They're evidence that a student who is known, challenged, and formed in faith at FPD walks into college (and life) ready, not just admitted. 

What this means for your family 

If you're weighing whether FPD is worth it, here's the honest answer: rigor without relationship burns kids out, and relationship without rigor doesn't prepare them. FPD is built to hold both a place where your child is known by name and still expected to rise to the level of their God-given potential. 

Ready to see it for yourself? [Schedule a tour] or request more information from our admissions office to find out what your child's own path at FPD could look like.