Immaculate Heart Strikes Gold with Advanced Placement Program

Each year, virtually 100 percent of Immaculate Heart students enrolled in AP Capstone earn passing scores on the annual exams. The two-course sequence focuses on inquiry, research and writing skills starting with AP Seminar and ends with a defended research project in AP Research.

Immaculate Heart High School has earned Gold recognition on the 2023 AP School Honor Roll for optimizing college readiness and broadening student access through Advanced Placement classes.

The College Board selected Immaculate Heart for the ranking based on criteria for its AP program, which enables students to pursue college-level studies – with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both – while still in high school.

College Board’s AP Honor Roll Gold Award (l) and College Board’s AP Access Award (r)

Immaculate Heart was also named the recipient of College Board’s AP Access Award for providing all students the chance to participate in its AP program, including students of underrepresented populations.

Immaculate Heart currently offers 16 AP courses, including the two-year AP Capstone Diploma program. Immaculate Heart was one of 600 high schools worldwide that were initially invited by College Board to offer AP Capstone, and Immaculate Heart became the first all-girls school in Los Angeles to introduce the program in 2016. AP Capstone’s two-course sequence focuses on inquiry, research and writing skills with the foundational class, AP Seminar, and ends with a defended research project in AP Research.

Each year, Immaculate Heart students excel in AP Capstone and other AP courses based on their high passing rate on the rigorous AP exams. For example, of the 191 students who took AP exams last spring, 81 percent achieved passing scores of 3 or higher on a five-point scale

College Board cited several more Immaculate Heart statistics for its Gold Honor Roll ranking: During the 2022-23 school year, 79 percent of Immaculate Heart seniors took at least one AP exam before graduating. Additionally, 67 percent of seniors received a score of three or higher on at least one AP exam, and 25 percent of seniors took five or more AP exams during their four years of high school!

“What is most impressive about our AP program is that course grades very closely align with AP scores,” Immaculate Heart High School Principal Naemah Morris said. “This demonstrates that our teachers understand the expectations of the AP program, prepare students effectively, and hold them accountable to that preparation throughout the entire school year.”

About Immaculate Heart

Founded in 1906, Immaculate Heart High School & Middle School educates and empowers young women in sixth through 12th grades from its location in the Los Feliz foothills near Griffith Park. The school has a long and distinguished history, with more than 11,000 graduates. Today’s student body of more than 700 young women is both geographically and ethnically diverse, drawing on students from throughout Los Angeles County. Last year, virtually 100 percent of Immaculate Heart graduates matriculated to colleges, including the most prestigious schools in the country.