The College Board has announced that Andover students are tops in the world in AP physics and AP music theory. A recent College Board report, AP Report to the Nation 2005, recognized the academy's "unparalleled success" for the highest percentage of students who pass the AP physics and music theory exams compared with schools of similar size worldwide. The report named the schools that "lead the world in helping the widest segment of their total school population attain college-level mastery of each AP exam."

Clyfe Beckwith, chair of the physics department, says the strong showing of Andover students is a result of highly motivated and talented students, a faculty that’s passionate about teaching adolescents, an extensive and rigorous curriculum, and state-of-the-art facilities.

Of the 1,083 students in the school, 69 took the Physics Mechanics C exam and 69 took the Physics Electricity and Magnetism C exam in May 2004. They earned an average grade of 4.5 on a 5-point scale on the mechanics exam and an average of 3.9 on the electricity and magnetism exam. The 21 students who took the AP music theory exam earned an average grade of 4.95. A grade of 3 or above represents mastery of the subject.

Beckwith credits several factors with the school’s success in teaching college-level physics to high school students. “First are the students themselves,” he says. “Our program attracts extremely well-qualified science and math students.” A number of those taking AP physics courses at Phillips Academy are 10th and 11th-graders.

The academy’s faculty includes eight physics teachers. Many hold advanced degrees, including two with Ph.D. degrees, and all are passionate about teaching physics to adolescents.

The academic curriculum offers 11 different physics courses. There are yearlong introductory courses: Introduction to Physics and College Physics. Seven electives include Classical Mechanics, Cosmology, Physical Geology, Meteorology, Electronics, Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, and Physics Seminar. In addition, two of the course offerings prepare for the AP Physics “C” exam, an exam that requires familiarity with calculus techniques; one is a year-long, three terms, introductory course, the other a two term, accelerated pace course for students who have demonstrated mastery of an algebra based college level physics course.

The science division of Phillips Academy is housed in the new Gelb Science Center, a 48,000-square-foot state-of-the-art science building that opened in January 2004. The top floor in the three-story structure is devoted entirely to physics classrooms, laboratories and interactive space for students and faculty. The building also has an astronomy observatory with a 16-inch reflector telescope housed in its 18 1/2-foot dome.

Phillips Academy, better known as Andover, is a coeducational independent boarding high school, known for its extensive and rigorous academic program. A diverse community of teachers and students, the academy was founded in 1778. Andover’s notable alumni physicists include Charles Greeley Abbot, pioneer in astrophysics and solar energy who headed the Smithsonian Institution; Alfred Lee Loomis, inventor of the Loran radar system, director of radar research in WWII and father of ultrasonics; Marvin Minsky, authority on artificial intelligence, computers and robotics; Herbert Scoville, nuclear physicist at Los Alamos and chief scientist in President Kennedy's U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; and Lyman Spitzer Jr., designer of the first telescope-bearing satellite and the driving force behind development of the Hubble Space Telescope.