TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple High School Advanced Academics program reached new heights during the 2024-2025 school year and students, families, teachers, and administrators joined together to celebrate those accomplishments during the annual Advanced Academics awards ceremony Thursday evening (August 7) in the Temple High School library.
Temple High School’s International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) programs both had the opportunity to celebrate the numbers recorded during the 2024-2025 school year and recognize the students responsible for those accomplishments during the ceremony.
Temple High School’s International Baccalaureate program beat both the state and national average for diploma pass rate and also beat the world average in math, English, history, and theatre. Over half of the IB exams taken by THS students earned a score of 5 or higher. THS students in the IB program earned 327 college credit hours and four content areas in the program posted a 100% pass rate this past year. Ten Temple High School students earned IB diplomas.
The Temple High School Advanced Placement program had 32 students recognized as AP Scholars and students in the program earned 534 hours of college credit. Nine content areas bettered their scores over the previous year and Temple High School Advanced Placement students also outperformed the state average in English.
“I am very proud of our Advanced Academics program,” said Dr. Jason Mayo, Principal of Temple High School. “Temple High School is outperforming state, national, and world averages in many content areas across the entire spectrum from history, math, and English to music and theatre. Our coordinators, Kaleigh Verett (IB) and Daphne Woodall (AP), have been instrumental in our success by providing vision and guidance to our programs. Our teachers are committed to excellence, and it is apparent in our results. Congratulations to our coordinators, teachers, and students on a record-breaking year!”
The ceremony gave teachers and administrators an opportunity to recognize more than 100 students from the Advanced Placement program and nearly 30 students from the IB program. There were recognitions for AP exams passed, AP Scholars, IB exams passed, and IB diplomas received. Teachers in content areas that surpassed state, national, or world averages, or recorded a 100% pass rate were also honored during the event. Temple High School also had eight students graduate from the Texas Bioscience Institute (TBI) in 2025, with those students earning an associate’s degree before they even graduated from high school.
“No matter what a student wants to do after high school, we have a program that is going to fit their interest and their skills, and we have a variety of programs that set any student up for success,” Kaleigh Verett, Advanced Academics Coordinator for Temple High School, said. “With Advanced Academics, it gives students an opportunity to get that high school experience but still take college level courses. It gives them the level of rigor they can expect in college while also earning college credits. It can save them time and thousands of dollars. It sets them up academically while giving them skills they will need practically to succeed in college. This is one of the best days of the year for me because we get to look back and celebrate that yes, it was difficult, but these students persevered and were successful.”
In addition to International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, and Texas Bioscience Institute programs, Temple High School Advanced Academics also offers dual credit classes and the OnRamps collaborative program with the University of Texas.