6 local schools among the state's top 100

PLAINFIELD -- By the time Travis Herrick graduates from Plainfield North High School in June, he'll already have an associate's degree under his belt.

Before he even started high school, he took a trigonometry course at Joliet Junior College after he graduated from Heritage Grove Middle School.

As he wraps up his final year at Plainfield North, he's taking three evening college courses at JJC in addition to his four Advanced Placement classes at his high school. The AP program allows Travis to get college credit based on his performance on AP exams.

Travis, 17, took his first AP class his sophomore year, and he said he found out about it by accident -- he saw his friend walk into another classroom rather than his.

Even though it was six weeks into the school year, Travis transferred into an AP U.S. history class, and the rest of Travis' high school curriculum has been full of college-level courses.

"Those were the first classes I truly enjoyed in high school," said Travis, 17, the son of Tim and Linda Herrick.

"The kid's really smart and because he's going to college, he applies himself more," Linda Herrick said. "He's more challenged. He loves it."

In the past three years, Travis' options for Advanced Placement courses has exploded from just five to 21.

Many schools offer fewer AP courses.

Those advanced courses are among the reasons Plainfield North High School jumped from 302 last year to 87 in the Chicago Sun-Times annual school rankings.

The list is a more precise way to measure student achievement compared to the report card data released by the state board of education each year. The Sun-Times ranking, based on raw test scores of every student, gives each school its own rank and percentile.

This year, six local high schools made the top 100 list.

19: Nequa Valley High School

34: Lincoln-Way East High School

53: Lincoln-Way Central High School

59: Lemont High School

62: Lincoln-Way North High School

87: Plainfield North High School

"We have really taken significant strides in the in the past five years," said Glenn Wood, director of high school curriculum and instruction for Plainfield School District.

He credited the increase in achievement to curriculum changes, such as raising the number of more challenging courses, making it easier for more students to take such courses and eliminating some lower-level classes. The district also offered more support to teachers, such as a summer AP Institute.

"We not only boosted AP classes, but raised the rigor in all of our classes. We don't offer basic level classes," Wood said. "We made substantial gains -- 200 positions we moved up in the ranking -- not only because of AP, but the whole core curriculum that really has brought up achievement of our students.

Districtwide, about 2,300 students enrolled in one or more AP courses this year, up from about 1,200 in 2007-08.

"We are very proud of what we've done. We feel like all of our schools have shown gains. These significant gains are going on at all of our schools," Wood said. "The teachers are doing a great job."

"It is quite a jump," said Plainfield North Principal Ray Epperson.

He said the school saw an 18 percent increase in students who met or exceeded reading standards on the Prairie State Achievement Exam and a 14 percent increase in math.

This is the first year, Plainfield North High School and Plainfield Central High School have made adequate yearly progress based on No Child Left Behind guidelines.

Epperson said at all the high schools staff spent time educating students about the importance of the test. At Plainfield North, administrators met with juniors in small groups, explaining the purpose of the test.

Associate Principal Stan Bertoni met with students offering a meal, tutoring sessions and test reviews. This year, the school will host a parents' night to explain the purpose of the test and how it could favorably impact the college process, Epperson said

"For years, kids didn't take it seriously," he said.

Epperson said there are a good number of students like Travis taking advantage of college courses while they are still in high school.

At Plainfield North, Travis and his classmate, Benjamin Yu, are among 16,000 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists nationwide.

Yu attended Harvard over the summer while other students took summer school classes so they could take more AP courses in the school year.

"It's a whole different level of commitment than you typically hear of high school students," he said.