By Michael Cole
It's time to celebrate our student success from the "Program of Excellence" at Pampa HIgh School!
Thank you to students, parents, Pampa ISD employees, and the Pampa ISD Board of Trustees for an unmatched decade of academic dominance.
Testing Years 2015-2024
2,077 college credit hours earned.
519 4-hour college Spanish classes earned.
Over one-half million dollars of college tuition earned by PHS students.
Here are the Top Ten Moments from the "Decade of Dominance":
10. “KICKED OUT” – 2016 PHS Graduate Millie Borunda, fresh from earning a “5” on her AP Spanish Exam in May of 2016, was “kicked out” of her first-semester Spanish class at prestigious, 33,000-student, Colorado University in Boulder. Because she earned credit for her first four Spanish classes by earning a “5” on her AP Spanish Exam, Millie was placed in a junior-level class as a first-semester freshman. An 18-year-old in a room full of 20-year-olds, Millie so greatly outperformed her classmates with the expertise of her Spanish abilities that the professor of the course “kicked out” Millie after the class met for the second time! The professor then moved her up to the next level of the class in the Colorado University curriculum! Millie’s experience at CU showed all of us the incredible power of the skills taught by the AP Spanish 4 class. Thank you for the great story, Millie!
9. GIVING BACK – Every successful program, academic or athletic, needs to have strong methods and models to inspire high levels of achievement. The methods for this program are my responsibility, but during this “Decade of Academic Dominance,” many older ex-students from the program have voluntarily returned to talk to the younger students and act as role models by answering questions about educational options after high school. 2015 PHS Graduate Yesenia Soria has returned many times to speak about what is possible when goals are established and a plan is put in place to accomplish those goals. Yesenia was the Valedictorian of Abilene Christian University in 2019 and graduated from Texas Tech Law School in 2022 with her MBA. Even though her life is incredibly busy, we are so grateful to have had an outstanding role model like Yesenia for an entire decade of PHS students. Thank you to all the ex-students who have given back to our program by helping others gain a vision for their future!
8. 1st GENERATION – Many of the students in our program are the first generation in their families to either graduate from high school and/or attend college. Two 2017 PHS graduates, Cynthia Perez and Aylin Rodriguez, became the first in their families to also graduate from West Texas A&M in the spring of 2021. To complete this circle of education, both young ladies returned in the fall of 2021 to work for Pampa ISD with Cynthia teaching Head Start and Aylin teaching 8th grade Science. Great Job, Ladies!
7. 81 STUDENTS – In May of 2024, PHS held a celebration in McNeely Fieldhouse for the 81 students enrolled at PHS who had earned between one and four college-level Spanish classes. Having this many students with College Credit while still in high school is a rare achievement even for schools several times the size of Pampa! Guest Speakers were Texas Tech student Itzel Perez, PHS Teacher Bella Tarango, and WTAMU Spanish Department Head Dr. Andrew Reynolds. Nelly Ramirez, reporter for TELEMUNDO TV in Amarillo covered the event and interviewed six PHS Spanish students who were put on TELEMUNDO NEWS and social media later that evening. Cookies and Cake topped off the celebration and time was allowed for the students to spend time with their families. PHS Principal Clay Jones stressed the importance of taking the time to give thanks when we are fortunate enough to have this many kids excelling in our school! So true!
6. CLEP TEST - With an established Spanish 4 AP program already in place, we wanted to be able to give more kids an opportunity to earn College Credit in Spanish. In March of 2023, the first group of Spanish 3 students made a successful trip to West Texas A&M in Canyon to take the CLEP Exam (College Level Examination Program). Students can earn College Credit for Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 from this National Exam. The CLEP was administered at PHS years ago, but the Spanish Program is reviving this opportunity to the point that 49 PHS Spanish 3 students earned College Credit through their scores on the CLEP exam during just the 2023-24 school year! The PHS Spanish 3 curriculum is very accelerated and most of the students earning College Credit from the CLEP are Freshmen and Sophomores! Congratulations!
5. “5” PICTURE - In 2022, a group of six Sophomore girls scored a “5”, the highest score possible on the National Spanish Language and Culture AP Exam. A picture of the girls went viral on social media and Reporter Nelly Ramirez of TELEMUNDO TV in Amarillo contacted PHS to set up a time to come to Pampa and do a story on the success of these students. Nelly interviewed all six girls in my classroom where they defended bilingualism and urged fellow students to not be afraid of taking advanced classes in high school. Nelly put the interviews on TELEMUNDO TV news and social media that evening and the article is still available on the Internet. In addition to a “5” on their AP Exam, several of these ladies have already earned their Associate’s Degree at 18 years of age. Thank you for representing our department and PHS so remarkably!
4. “IMPOSSIBLE SCORES” - The Spanish 4 AP Class of 2023 posted the highest average AP class score in PHS history. With “5” being the top score possible, this group earned a cumulative class score of 4.5 by posting seven “5s" out of 12 students and as a class performed 23% higher than the Texas passing average. As impressive as these scores were, the shocking score earned by this unique group of young people was not on the actual AP test! When AP scores are released in July, all AP teachers are sent a Teacher Score Report that details how the class performed on 35 different subsections of the AP Exam. The teacher can then see where they need to adjust their lessons to address weaknesses in their curriculum. The AP Class of 2023 scored above the National Average in every one of the 35 subsections of the AP Exam! That is the highest level of scoring measured on the report and qualifies as a Perfect Teacher Score Report! These students had not even one deficiency as a class! What talent! Approximately 160,000 students take this exam annually, so the probability of that level of performance happening in any one school would be measured on the same level as winning the lottery! Additionally, I have never known another educator, high school or college, who has even heard of a Perfect AP Teacher Score Report! Congratulations Class of 2023! Wow!
3. AP DISTRICT HONOR ROLL - In 2017, PHS became the first high school in the Texas Panhandle or Texas South Plains to be named to the AP District Honor Roll. Of the tens of thousands of schools in the U.S., Pampa High School was one of 400 schools honored for their efforts to make higher education classes available to more students. PHS had seen a significant increase in the number of students passing AP National Exams and was named to this coveted award. This award confirmed the efforts of PISD to create more advanced opportunities for its students. Because of the uniqueness of this award, State Senator Kel Seliger of Amarillo and his staff came to Pampa to honor the PHS faculty and AP Teachers. Growing an AP Program and growing student expectations takes time, but this was an affirmation that PHS was on the right track!
2. WTAMU AWARD – In September of 2023 at a regional teacher training held on the campus of West Texas A&M University, the staff of the PHS Spanish Department was presented with the first-ever “Program of Excellence” award bestowed upon a high school by this university. WTAMU recognized the PHS program as “consistently demonstrating student success, being a strong proponent of bilingualism, and as an exemplary model for language teaching in the Panhandle.” Considering the enormous efforts invested into this program by the PHS Staff and PISD, we accepted this award with hearts full of pride for all our program had accomplished up to this point. Even better, at this time none of us knew that in the coming months, a record 59 PHS students would earn even more College Spanish Credit during the upcoming 2023-24 academic year! A record number of kids earning College Credit put a beautiful exclamation point on this recognition of our program by WTAMU! Why can’t all public schools have this amount of success?
1. #1 PHS CLASS – In a decade full of superlatives, awards, TV appearances, and new levels of achievement, one unique class stands above the rest. The Spanish 4 AP Class of 2020 was loaded with 45 strong students, all of them primed to attack the National AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam in May of that year. Unfortunately, the global pandemic of COVID-19 had other plans for the spring semester... Between not coming back from Spring Break, remote lessons, Wi-Fi issues, and technology malfunctions only 35 of the 45 Spanish 4 students could take the National AP Exam. Even with all these distractions, 100% of the 35 students from the AP Class of 2020 passed their exam and earned 371 College Credit hours for their efforts, the equivalent of 92, 4 hour college classes. These extraordinary numbers make this group of young people the #1 academic class in the long history of Pampa High School! Most people’s COVID memories include toilet paper, masks, and social distancing. My COVID memories also include a super group of students who had to fight through a myriad of barriers to be successful in our AP class. I will always treasure the time shared with this group as we passed through the many uncertainties of a crazy 2020.
