Common Core

Advanced Placement (AP) courses have been hailed as rigorous college-preparatory program classes coupled with quality assessments of content mastery. Unfortunately, access to these courses has really been limited to academic student stars, typically middle- and upper-middle class white students who live in suburbs. We’ve heard of some inner-city high schools offering no AP courses at all.

Four years ago, the National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices launched an initiative to expand low-income and minority students’ access to AP courses.  A report out this month found promising results – showing not only an increase in students taking AP courses, but also an increase in the number who pass:

• The number of students taking AP courses rose 65 percent over two years, and the number of minority and low-income students taking AP exams more than doubled.
• The percentage [of students] scoring at mastery in the pilot sites increased from 6.6 percent in 2005–2006 to 8.3 percent in 2007–2008. During this same period, the national average rose from 14.8 percent to 15.2 percent.
• With 55,000 students, together the 51 pilot high schools are large enough to be thought of as a state. If taken as a “state,” the NGA Center pilot schools outperformed similarly sized states, which only saw performance grow from 6.2 percent at mastery to 6.5 percent at mastery during the same period.

In part, the above results were accomplished because individual states made policy and program changes that improved access, built capacity, and offered incentives. The report highlighted states (both those that were pilots and those that weren’t) that are implementing strategies to achieve those goals.  For example, Arkansas and West Virginia requires every high school to offer at least four AP courses. Maryland has become a model state for vertical curriculum alignment, ensuring that middle school students are able to access rigorous courses so that AP courses are less daunting.  And, in Florida, former Governor Jeb Bush started an incentive program that gives schools $50 for each student that scores at the mastery level–with 80% of that money then allocated for more AP teachers to continue expansion.

We thank these states for making high quality, content-rich education a priority for all students.