Alabama
Which Alabama high schools offer the most AP classes? See the top 14
Which Alabama schools offer the most AP courses? See the top 14
In some Alabama high schools, students have the chance to take college-level German, music theory or even advanced physics courses before stepping foot on a university campus.
But options vary widely by school. Out of the 285 Alabama public and private schools that offered Advanced Placement courses, only a small number offer 25 or more unique courses for students to choose from, according to an AL.com analysis of recent College Board data.
The Advanced Placement program offers a total of 39 courses across a variety of disciplines.
AP courses are created by college faculty. To earn college credit, students must earn a score of 3, 4 or 5, considered a passing, or qualifying, score. A passing score on an AP test can unlock up to three credit hours of college coursework.
Here are the Alabama schools that registered to offer more than 25 unique AP courses in the 2023-24 school year:
- James Clemens High School, Madison City: 30 courses
- Bob Jones High School, Madison City: 29 courses
- Thompson High School, Alabaster: 29 courses
- Mountain Brook High School, Mountain Brook: 28 courses
- Montgomery Academy, a private school in Montgomery: 28 courses
- Hoover High School, Hoover: 27 courses
- Virgil Grissom High School, Huntsville: 27 courses
- Spain Park High School, Hoover: 26 courses
- Florence High School, Florence: 26 courses
- Hewitt-Trussville High School, Trussville: 26 courses
- Vestavia Hills High School, Vestavia Hills: 26 courses
- Homewood High School, Homewood: 25 courses
- Huntsville High School, Huntsville: 25 courses
- Loveless Academic Magnet High School, Montgomery: 25 courses
And if you’re counting pre-AP courses, three other high schools – Baker High in Mobile and Oak Mountain and Chelsea High in Shelby County – join that list.
Public schools with the largest AP offerings were mostly in big city school systems and suburban districts. Just one private school offered more than 25 courses.
To offer an AP course, schools must go through an audit process, which enables the College Board to give teachers and administrators clear guidelines. The schools listed below are cleared by the College Board to administer the course, but might not offer that course every year.
Some courses require the school to offer specific prerequisites, while others may come with costly textbooks or other materials. Schools must also assign someone local to handle auditing duties, as well as an AP coordinator.
It costs students about $100 per test to take an AP exam. Some schools cover those costs for students, and others may be eligible for reimbursement from the state.
In Madison City, Superintendent Ed Nichols credits the program for the district’s high college-going rates, but he said it takes buy-in from everyone involved.
Nichols said the district partners with local universities to give additional training to AP teachers, and frequently communicates the value of the program to parents. The district also offers a handful of pre-AP courses to help prepare younger students for higher-level coursework.
“It takes a dedicated student that is willing to accept the rigor,” he said. “It also takes support at home, and I’m proud that our board today and years before us was committed to this.”
Which schools offer AP?
Schools that offered lots of AP courses also tended to have lower rates of students living in poverty. Each of the 10 schools with the largest number of offerings are majority-white schools.
At least 150 of Alabama’s 381 public high schools didn’t offer any AP courses last year. More than 40 had only one course registered. Most of those schools were small, rural schools that enrolled fewer than 500 students.
Private schools had a big range of offerings, with some authorized for just one course and others offering more than 20.
Montgomery Academy led the state’s private schools with 28 course offerings. It was followed by UMS Wright Preparatory School in Mobile, which was registered for 21 courses.
AP English Language and Composition was the most popular offering, with 204 schools registered for the course, followed by AP Computer Science Principles, with 179 schools registered.
Less than 50 schools offer high-level calculus or physics courses.
Fewer schools, 21, offered pre-AP courses for ninth graders. And just 16 now offer both of the AP Seminar and Research courses required for the program’s capstone track, which was created in 2014.
Among elective courses, AP 2-D Art and Design was the most popular, with 63 schools registered. A small, but growing number of schools are now registered for AP African American Studies and languages such as German or Latin.
Look up your school’s offerings below. If you can’t see the table, view it here.
Alabama
Alabama Department of Transportation worker speaks of heat exhaustion experience during week of dangerously high temperatures
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WBRC) – A WBRC On Your Side Safety Check during First Alert Weather Days as we are working to help keep you safe in this heat.
Doctors say when it’s hot like this, it’s dangerous and can even be deadly.
The heat is really on in Alabama, and it’s the kind of heat that cares not one bit who you are, what you do for a living, or where you’re from. Jerrell Bowden learned that the hard way.
“It felt really weird.. Like my whole body went like.. Kind of stopped,” said Jerrell Bowden, who works for the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT).
Bowden remembers it all too well, a case of heat exhaustion. It happened four years ago on the job during a period of stifling heat. Bowden, who works in ALDOT’s transportation and technology division, often works on the traffic signal team that replaces bulbs or new signage.
“My whole body just kind of sit down. I literally could not walk up four steps. I had to sit down and stop and one of the aides out there said ‘You don’t look good. Let me get you some water’,” said Bowden.
Within 15 minutes, Bowden says he began to feel like himself again.
UAB emergency physician Dr. Jeron Raper says this is the very thing he warns people about when the temperatures rise matched with suffocating humidity.
“Folks, think of heat exhaustion and heat exposure. It’s really a broad spectrum of disease. You can have heat stroke, which is really on the far end, and those are really sick patients that have evidence of changes in their mental status.. they’re confused, they may not be behaving normally,” said Dr. Raper.
It never got to that dangerous level for Bowden, but it scared him enough that he no longer short-changes the weather or pretends he can handle it. Bowden admitted he made a potentially deadly mistake on that job site four years ago.
“Next thing I knew.. Everything was locking up. What do I do with this,” said Bowden.
Today, Bowden has seen the light. He says part of his daily intake is water and a Squincher Squeenze for hydration.
“Yes, sir we have plenty of Gatorade and plenty of water,” said Bowden.
Bowden was among the lucky ones. According to Dr. Raper, anywhere from 700 to 1,500 die every year in the country from heat-related illnesses.
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Copyright 2026 WBRC. All rights reserved.
Alabama
Potential for Severe Storms Through Early Evening – Alabama Emergency Management Agency (EMA)
By Jim Stefkovich, Meteorologist, Alabama Emergency Management Agency
CLANTON –Thursday, 12:00 pm, July 2, 2026
Similar to yesterday, models indicate widely scattered to scattered thunderstorms developing mainly across the northern half of the state this afternoon and continuing into the early evening hours. Especially near and north of I-20, clusters of strong-to-severe thunderstorms are possible, with damaging wind gusts of 50-65 mph, hail, and torrential rain. There is no tornado threat. All precipitation will end across the state sometime between 9 pm and 12 am.
Hot and humid conditions will continue through at least next Tuesday, with highs in the 90s and lows only reaching the middle 70s. Heat index values could reach 110-114 in a few spots in northern Alabama, with 100-110 across the rest of the state today. From Friday through the holiday weekend, afternoon heat index values will generally range from 100 to 107. The Heat Advisories will likely be extended into the weekend for northern and central Alabama.
Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Children and pets should NEVER be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances.
\
Isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms are again forecast during the afternoons and evenings across the northern half of the state both Friday and Saturday, with scattered thunderstorms statewide from Sunday through at least next Tuesday. A few storms each day could produce wind gusts from 40-60 mph and frequent lightning.
Since this is a holiday weekend with a lot of outdoor activity, make sure you remain weather aware. If you hear thunder, you are most likely within range of being struck by lightning. Don’t become a statistic! When thunder roars, go indoors.
Watch this Greater Cincinnati casino sink off the Alabama coast
The Argosy VI sunk July 1, becoming part of Alabama’s artificial reef.
One of Greater Cincinnati’s first riverboat casinos sunk off the Alabama coast July 1.
Argosy VI was a four-level, 408-foot-long riverboat casino that operated in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, until 2009. The boat once held the title of the “world’s largest riverboat casino,” holding up to 4,407 people and over 1,700 slot machines.
The boat is now part of Alabama’s artificial reef system off the state’s Gulf Coast. The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources previously sunk a retired 271-foot coastal freighter in 2013 and a 250-foot former research vessel in 2018.
Watch the boat sink here:
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