Bellaire High School recorded Advanced Placement scores above the district and state averages for the 2023-2024 school year.

Bellaire’s high-performance levels in 2024 aren’t an anomaly but rather a continuation of success over the years. In 2023, 79% of exams taken by Bellaire students recorded a score of 3 or higher compared to 50% of exams by all students across the state of Texas. Bellaire outclassed the state on popular AP exams such as AP Calculus BC, AP World History, AP US History and AP English Language and Composition, with a higher percentage of exams scoring at least a 3 in all of those classes.

AP Calculus BC and IB Math HL teacher Edward Mazzoni attributes much of Bellaire’s success to the involvement and dedication of both teachers and students. Mazzoni spends time during Cardinal Hour working with any number of his 149 Calculus BC students — the largest group he’s ever taught in his career — something that he credits for his students’ high level of achievement. In 2024, Mazzoni’s students’ average score was 4.25 out of 5 on the Calculus BC exam compared to a mean of 3.61 across the state.
“From my experience, there is no substitute for a teacher who has a thorough understanding of the content they teach, a passion to help students learn and is able to push students outside of their academic comfort zones while offering support and compassion,” Mazzoni said.

To senior Mohammed Khan, what truly sets Bellaire apart and allows success to be possible is the way that teachers help educate students and present content to them.

“The teachers here are really good,” Khan said. “I feel like the way that they teach you here in an AP subject is a little more structured. I’ve heard [that] other schools [aren’t as] structured, but here it’s way easier to learn. We’re not only given the material, but we’re also taught the material. That’s the main difference.”

Student success goes beyond good preparation and support from teachers, though. AP Yabei Yin helps to ensure that AP testing runs as smoothly by registering students, arranging exams and handling all of the requirements that come with them.

“The AP exam is definitely one of the most difficult exams to coordinate because we have over 30 different subjects, and each exam has very different requirements,” Yin said. “For example, [the] calculus exam requires different kinds of calculators. Then for our language exams, you have to have recorders for every student, [and] they have to sit so many feet apart from each other. There’s a lot to take into consideration.”

According to Yin, the willingness of the students themselves to dedicate themselves to getting high scores is also a contributing factor to success.

“Every student that ever talks to [me about wanting] to take the AP exam, they all know what they want to do already,” Yin said. “They want to get high scores, they know what college they want to go [to] so they know which exam is going to help them [to] get college credit that saves on tuition.”

Khan said that being in an environment of high academic achievement and high AP exam scores is beneficial to students, providing a source of focus and a sense of competition for students where they can also help each other become better learners.

“Students are really hard-working,” Khan said. “Bellaire students know how to finish deadlines [and things like that] when an AP exam is coming up. It keeps me driven if everybody else is [succeeding]. You’re always focused because you’ll say ‘Yeah, they can do it, and I can also do it.’”

Fostering an academic culture isn’t the only benefit of setting a standard of AP success. Mazzoni said that even if students do not pursue a degree or career path that relates to the AP courses they take, such as his Calculus BC course, the skills that they pick up along the way will help them later in life.
“For some [students], a high score on the BC exam will satisfy all of their core math requirements for college,” Mazzoni said. “Even if students do not directly use the knowledge they acquire in calculus, I believe they will become better analytical thinkers and problem solvers. These skills can carry over into any college major and future career.”