The Beacon Award is presented to the one district in the nation that has made a profound achievement in using AP courses to create a culture focused on college readiness.  Hillsborough County achieved the largest increase in the number of students earning AP scores of 3 or better of any school district in the nation, an increase of 1,814 students.  No other school district approaches this large of an increase in the number of individual students who earned scores of 3 or better.  In the same time period, the district increased student participation in AP courses and exams by an annual rate of 19 percent. 

District staff, principals, and AP teachers will be present in San Francisco when East Bay High School salutatorian, Kasandra Ballenza, introduces Superintendent Elia at the AP Annual Conference Award ceremony.