Elmont Memorial High School recently received national recognition when it was one of the schools cited by CollegeBoard for high achievement in Advanced Placement in a report called "AP Report to the Nation 2005."

The report found that in New York State, more than 20 percent of the class of 2004 demonstrated college-level mastery of at least one Advanced Placement (AP) course during their high school years. In New York, 17.9 percent of the class of 2000 demonstrated college-level mastery of an AP course in high school. That number jumped to 21.2 in 2004.

Elmont Memorial High School was identified as the school in the nation with the largest number of African Americans scoring a three or higher on the AP World History examination.

The report stated that several states have made strides so that some traditionally underrepresented minority populations are now no longer underrepresented in the pool of AP examinees.

In Elmont, it doesn't matter what race or ethnicity a student is, the philosophy from the elementary school level on up is that every student is capable of high academic achievement.

Elmont Memorial High School Principal Al Harper gave the credit to the staff, particularly world history teacher Mike Indovino and, of course, the students. "Mike Indovino works tremendously hard. He meets the students before school and sometimes after school. He meets them on his lunch periods. He works tremendously hard in making sure every kid has the opportunity to be successful in that program. The students work really hard. They have a strong desire to be successful and not only is it resulting in the fact that our 10th graders and these world history students did exceptionally well on that exam but it results in the fact that over 300 students graduated from here last year. Our entire senior class graduated [in 2004] with 69 percent getting Regents diplomas and 97 percent going on to college. That real academic excellence is contagious throughout the school. From the students to the faculty and the administration, it's something we live and breath and something we truly believe in," Mr. Harper said.

According to the Elmont High School principal, there is a district-wide selection policy for students to get into the AP program, but, he said, "we want to be inclusive and allow any student who really has the desire and the willingness to work hard to get into the program."

Mr. Harper also believes the Elmont elementary school district deserves a lot of credit for preparing students for high school. "[Superintendent of Schools for the Elmont School District] Dr. Maria Palandra has done an outstanding job in preparing the students to come to high school. It doesn't happen overnight. It's a consistent pattern of excellence. We get a good product from the elementary schools. It's teamwork," he said.