The animal science program is consistently at the front of new initiatives and other benchmarks.

The Arlington Public Schools started evaluating programs based on the Exemplary Program model years ago. Animal Science was the second program in the county to achieve this honor. Our program helped pilot the program and also gave feedback on the process to improve it. We have been rated Exemplary locally since 2006. There are currently five programs in the school out of 18 that have earned that distinction. The Exemplary process was implemented countywide for CTE programs and there are only 16 out of 41 programs that have earned Exemplary. So we are in the top 73% of the school and the top 61% in the county.

The county currently has a total of 137 National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT). Both of the instructors in the Animal Science program are NBCT. There is only one other NBCT in the school. We comprise 66% of the NBCT in the school and 1% of Arlington's NBCT.

Our program enrollment is the largest of all programs in the building.   We currently have a ratio of 16.8 students per class which is the second highest class ratio in the building.

The Animal Science program was one of the first adopters of the CanDo competency tracking system. We have utilized it consistently ever since and have been part of improvement efforts. In December 2011, both instructors were asked to co-lead a teacher workshop to teach all  Arlington CTE teachers how to use the software.

During the 2008 - 2009 school year we did not use any of the State approved tests. However, the Advanced Animal Science class did take the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters (NAPPS), which is now State approved. That year there was a 88% pass rate for the NAPPS test. The Small Animal Science Assessment had a 25% pass rate statewide. I believe that this is due to the closer parallel between the NAPPS test and our curriculum as opposed to the other assessment and the state curriculum. The revised NAPPS test even more closely matches our curriculum, so hopefully our pass rate this year will be comparable.

We have certified our students in American Red Cross Pet First Aid and CPR (ARC)for many years. In 2008 - 2009, we certified 63 students. Our enrollment was 74 but not all of our students certify. Since both Technical Animal Science and Advanced Animal Science take the course, there are some students who are already certified and do not need to certify through us. The number of these students varies each year and we have not maintained data for this statistic. Therefore, the pass rate for the ARC certification is at least, but probably more than, 85%.