California High School Strikes AP Gold with Shmoop

With more school activities available than ever before, finding the right program that engages students in studying has become critical. It’s important that they are inspired rather than forced to learn. That old trick of threatening to rap their knuckles with a yardstick isn’t really in vogue these days.

To respond to this need, Tustin High School in Tustin, Calif., turned to Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and online test prep. And Shmoop, as is its custom, came to the rescue. Although the cape might have been overkill.

“The Shmoop courses are fabulous,” said Eric Mooney, assistant principal of Tustin High School. “Students are walking away from courses knowing that the information they received and knowledge they have gained will have a positive impact on their current and future classes.”

Part of the impact to which Mooney refers came in the form of exam scores. After implementing Shmoop, Tustin High School saw the pass rate for its AP History exam increase from 45 to 80 percent.

Additional benefits Shmoop provides students at Tustin High School include: 

•     Test prep services for CAHSEE, AP classes, PSAT, ACT and SAT.
•     Support for struggling readers in reading comprehension. Because Tom Sawyer is some people’s Sound and the Fury.
•     Preparing students for their next level of classes.
•     Three, full-length practice tests for AP classes.
•     Enhanced skills and knowledge in challenging courses. But … challenging in a good way. Not in that “running the gauntlet” sort of way.

Mooney was particularly impressed with the AP practice tests: “These tests can serve as benchmarks of student progress and help to focus instruction and individualize a student’s AP experience.”

To learn more about Shmoop and how its offerings enhance student learning, visit http://www.shmoop.com.

About Shmoop 
Shmoop is a digital curriculum and test prep company that makes fun, rigorous learning and teaching materials. Shmoop content is written by master teachers and Ph.D. students from Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and other top universities. Shmoop Learning Guides, Test Prep, and Teacher’s Editions balance a teen-friendly, approachable style with academically rigorous materials to help students understand how subjects relate to their daily lives. Shmoop offers more than 7,000 titles across the Web, iPhone, Android devices, iPad, Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader. The company has been honored twice by the Webby Awards and was named “Best in Tech” for 2010 and 2011 by Scholastic Administrator. Launched in 2008, Shmoop is headquartered in a labradoodle-patrolled office in Mountain View, California.