For the second consecutive year, Delbarton has been named to the 2023-2024 Advanced Placement® Program (AP®) School Honor Roll, earning Platinum distinction, the highest level in a program that includes Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum classifications. Schools earn Advanced Placement School Honor Roll recognition for achievement in three categories of AP participation and performance using evidence-based criteria on the relationship between AP and college outcomes.

AP courses, each of which culminates in a challenging exam in May, enable students to pursue college-level studies with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both. The AP® School Honor Roll was established in 2023 to recognize schools whose AP programs deliver results for students while broadening access.

It should come as no surprise that Delbarton was an early adopter of and contributor to the AP concept. Delbarton has offered AP courses since the late 1960s when they were new to American education. In 2023, Headmaster Fr. Michael Tidd, O.S.B. recalled, “In fact, one of the signature parts of the AP History examinations (United States, European and World History), the Document-Based Question (DBQ) was developed right here at Delbarton between 1970 and 1973 by the late Abbot Giles Hayes, O.S.B., '56, who at the time served on the College Board's Development Committee for AP examinations.” Below is a photo of a Meeting of the Minds roundtable debate in Mr. John Thompson's popular, rigorous AP European History class during spring 2024.

Delbarton is committed to providing access to a wide variety of AP courses to its students and encourages them to challenge themselves by working at optimum capacity to achieve academic success.

This year, Delbarton is offering seventy-three sections in twenty-six school AP courses for students in grades 10 to 12 taught by thirty-two faculty member and in May, the school will surpass 1,000 administered AP exams in a single year. These numbers vary from year to year depending on student interest in an AP Program adeptly managed by AP Coordinator Chris Cocozello. Note that these numbers do not include AP exams students take in courses that Delbarton does not offer; for example we have students taking AP Chinese and Microeconomics. We also have students self-studying for exams in courses that we do offer but they are not taking.

Fr. Michael says, “Advanced Placement courses provide our students with opportunities to study sophisticated concepts and hone critical thinking and expression skills that are crucial to their college success.  The broad diversity of our AP offerings also enables students not only to discover new interests and skills but also to explore and develop them in depth."

From a college admissions perspective, AP courses improve students’ chances of admission to competitive colleges and increase the likelihood that they will graduate from college in four years. We are gratified to learn that the success of the robust Delbarton AP program earned the School the highest distinction of Platinum on the 2024 Advanced Placement School Honor Roll.