Yantas prepares his students for another year of success. photo by Morgan VandeRiet.
TJ’s AP Spanish is more successful than ever.
For the first time in the history of Thomas Jefferson High School, every student in the 2014-2015 Advanced Placement Spanish class passed their AP exam with a score of at least 3 or higher. With sixteen students, the average class score was 3.867, with four students scoring a 3, nine students scoring a 4, and two students scoring a 5. TJ is the only school in the district with this success in AP Spanish, yet teacher Marcelino Yantas is committed to further improve this feat.
In previous years, there have been continuous improvements on the AP Spanish test. This past year, however, had the biggest jump, with an improvement of 11%; 89% of the class passed the exam in 2014, while 100% passed last year. With that much success in just one school year, Yantas is eager to enhance his class even more. “My next step, I want everybody to pass with a five,” he explained.
Leading up to the exam, one of the main factors that Yantas had his class focus on was their homework. He stressed the importance of practicing the skills they learned in class in order to comprehend and apply them for the AP exam. Additionally, he assigned extra work to the entire class if even one person did not complete their work. Yantas explained how crucial it will be for students to complete their homework in college, and is making sure that they are prepared for that. “The students understand that and bring it one hundred percent,” he added.
Although many students felt intimidated going into AP Spanish, they were dedicated to doing well and passing. Junior Natalie Daniels was apprehensive at first, but gained confidence as the year continued. “My favorite part was just having a really good teacher who helped me understand things that I couldn’t,” Daniels described. She liked how in the class, they practiced the specific things that they would be tested on, such as answering timed and multiple choice questions. As well, Daniels explained how valuable it is to be able to speak a second language, especially Spanish, and how beneficial it will be when she starts a career. “I will be able to use them in the workforce later on because it’s becoming integrated into the country and more people are going to have to learn how to speak Spanish,” she continued.
Currently, Yantas is looking for more students interested in taking Spanish and is anticipating another phenomenal year with his classes. Additionally, he thanked the administration, and commented on how they are “doing a very good job, so I have more time for teaching and not the trouble to fix behavior.” With fewer interruptions and more class time, it’s easier to prepare his classes for success.
With this class doing so well and receiving great scores, principal Suzanne Morris-Sherer commented, “Mr. Yantas does a great job of prepping his kids, and they really buy into the content. Truly they exemplify what it means to be a Spartan.” AP Spanish has set a good pace for the other AP classes at TJ, and Morris-Sherer is proud of the progress. She added, “We made gains in fourteen of the nineteen tests that we administered. That’s pretty incredible.”
