Download or read book EQUITY IN ADVANCED PLACEMENT COURSE TAKING written by Andrew T. Kuhn and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The academic intensity of one's high school experience is most important to success in college. Tracking causes in-school segregation that most often results in low levels of participation by students of color and low socioeconomic status (SES) in upper level classes, including Advanced Placement (AP). Using a practitioner's vantage point, this dissertation is a mixed-method case study of AP course-taking at one inner-ring suburban high school that eliminated its lowest track prior to the first year of data analysis and allowed open enrollment to AP courses prior to the third. To track the impact of these changes, five years of AP course-taking data were analyzed for participation by students of color and those of low SES. The data revealed an increase in AP course enrollment by students of color from 12% to 22%, and by students of low SES from 2% to 8%. Interviews with 19 influential educators followed the quantitative analysis. In five years, this diverse Pennsylvania public high school moved from a system characterized by a number of barriers preventing low-income and minority students from taking higher level courses to an institution that has provided a rich choice of AP course offerings, established a Black Scholars program to encourage the academic success of students of color, and created open enrollment to its AP courses. While all teachers had some struggles adjusting to teaching AP courses in open enrollment era, teachers assumed either a resistant stance and intimidating approach to non-traditional AP students or a progressive stance, inviting and supporting non-traditional students in their course. Those teachers who created an emotionally and academically safe environment, expressed caring for their students, and employed flexible approaches to instruction and assessment attracted the most diverse set of students to their AP courses. Lincoln is not necessarily a model school as more work is needed to continue to create rigorous, inclusive learning environments in all classes, yet this study indicates that if students have the opportunity to take on challenging coursework like AP and work to master the course with the support of excellent teachers, long-term reward is sure to follow.
Download or read book Gaining Or Losing Ground written by Maria Estela Zarate and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analysis by researchers of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) on Advanced Placement (AP) courses in California public high schools in the mid-1990s concluded that although high school AP programs offered talented youngsters the opportunity to stretch their mental horizons and preview the challenges of college-level coursework, the programs were not available to all students in the state of California. The findings of this report indicate that access to AP courses remains an unlikely opportunity for Black and Latino students and many low-income/rural students regardless of ethnicity and that AP courses continue to be an inequitable sorting mechanism that limits some groups' college preparation opportunities. Policy recommendations include: (1) Better communication with students and parents about the role AP courses play in determining post-secondary education options; (2) State funding to increase AP courses at schools that have disproportionately lower AP class offerings should be considered; (3) Consideration of compulsory minimum number of AP courses available at every school of similar size enrollment; (4) Amelioration of the disadvantages of rural and small schools by increasing the number of AP courses that can be completed online and decreasing the costs associated with this class format and by collaborating with centrally located college campuses to offer AP courses to students whose schools may not offer them; (5) Reassessment by higher education institutions of how AP courses are incorporated into calculation of GPA and overall admissions review; and (6) Annual publication of AP courses offered by all state public high schools. Further research is recommended to investigate the actual number of classes offered for each AP course and the number of students actually taking AP classes to reveal racial disparities in who is enrolled in the AP classes at the school level, and to examine the distribution of AP course subjects across schools. (Contains 4 endnotes and 12 tables.).
Download or read book Learning in the Fast Lane written by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "More than three million high-school students take five million Advanced Placement exams each May, yet remarkably little is known about how this sixty-year-old, privately-run program, has become one of U.S. education's greatest successes. From its mid-century origin as a tiny option for privileged kids from posh schools, AP has also emerged as a booster rocket into college for hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged youngsters. It challenges smart kids, affects school ratings, affords rewarding classroom challenges to great teachers, tunes up entire schools, and draws vast support from philanthropists, education reformers and policymakers. AP stands as America's foremost source of college-level academics for high school pupils. Praised for its rigor and integrity, more than 22,000 schools now offer some-or many-of its thirty-eight subjects, from Latin to calculus, art to computer science. But challenges abound today, as AP faces stiffening competition (especially dual credit), curriculum wars, charges of elitism, misgivings by elite schools and universities, and the arduous work of infusing rigor into schools that lack it and academic success into young people unaccustomed to it. In today's polarized climate, can Advanced Placement maintain its lofty standards and overcome the hostility, politics and despair that have sunk so many other bold education ventures? Advanced Placement: The Unsung Success Story of American Education is a unique account-richly documented and thoroughly readable-of the AP program in all its strengths and travails, written by two of America's most respected education analysts"--
Download or read book Equity and Access written by Cole Malsky and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, the College Board and the Advanced Placement program have pushed for further equity and access for all students (College Board, 2020a). College Board is taking strides to offer students open enrollment to Advanced Placement; however, many underrepresented and low-income students are still unable to access these courses. The College Board and school districts need to continue to study strategies to help close this opportunity gap. To what extent is the College Board working to expand the AP program in private schools to serve more underrepresented students? What impact does the growth of the Advanced Placement program have on teaching and learning according to educators? What have been the challenges in terms of efficacy and access of the Advanced Placement program and what strategies have been implemented to overcome them according to educators?This mixed method study utilized both quantitative and qualitative data to understand the impact open access of the Advanced Placement program has had on teaching and learning. The researcher examined quantitative findings from a Google Form survey sent to AP teachers at five private high schools on Long Island, as well as College Board AP participation and performance data from New York State. The qualitative findings from this research were collected through one-on-one, semi-structured interviews through a video conferencing platform. Additionally, College Board publications related to equity and access were examined.Quantitative findings from the research study were significant and can be used to support the growth of the Advanced Placement program in schools. The study's findings have implications for policy-makers, administrators, and teachers. Initiatives for Advanced Placement equity and access should continue to reach underrepresented students. Additionally, open-access of the AP program is beneficial for success for all students and should be encouraged. Teachers should continue to gain support through professional development and digital resources from the College Board. A recommendation for future research is to include classroom observations in the qualitative portion of the study. Including classroom observations in the qualitative portion of the study could yield further results about classroom strategies that are successful for AP courses.
Download or read book AP written by Philip Michael Sadler and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Draws together the most recent and rigorous research on the strengths and weaknesses of the Advanced Placement program. Examines closely the differences between AP and other high school courses, as well as variations among AP courses. In-depth studies gauge the impact of AP coursework on student performance in college. Finally, researchers examine the use of AP information in college admissions. From publisher description.
Download or read book Learning and Understanding written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-08-06 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes a fresh look at programs for advanced studies for high school students in the United States, with a particular focus on the Advanced Placement and the International Baccalaureate programs, and asks how advanced studies can be significantly improved in general. It also examines two of the core issues surrounding these programs: they can have a profound impact on other components of the education system and participation in the programs has become key to admission at selective institutions of higher education. By looking at what could enhance the quality of high school advanced study programs as well as what precedes and comes after these programs, this report provides teachers, parents, curriculum developers, administrators, college science and mathematics faculty, and the educational research community with a detailed assessment that can be used to guide change within advanced study programs.
Download or read book Challenge by Choice and Its Impact on Enrollment and Achievement for Advanced Placement Students written by Jessica Williams and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a Challenge by Choice policy instituted in 2011 on AP course taking and performance in a suburban, New York high school. Before this policy, the school used a tracking system based on grade point averages and teacher recommendation in order for students to be eligible for an Advanced Placement class; after, students were allowed to enroll themselves without completing any predetermined requirements. This study used ANOVAs and time series analyses to analyze the differences in means of student enrollment and achievement in AP classes among students before, during, and after the policy implementation for all students, as well as for demographic subgroups. Overall, there was a significant increase in the percentage of students who enrolled in at least one AP course for the students who were exposed to the policy and also a significant increase in the average number of AP courses students took. However, when broken down by subgroup, Black and Hispanic students did not realize these benefits. For most classes, AP scores were not influenced by the policy even though enrollment increased. Therefore, the Challenge by Choice policy achieved the school's intended goal of increasing AP course taking and achievement, but also increased equity gaps among some groups. Researchers, school administrators, and other school personnel may need to consider additional supports to ensure that this policy is effective for all students.
Download or read book Excellence Gaps in Education written by Jonathan A. Plucker and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2020-01-15 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2017 Texas Association for Gifted and Talented Legacy Scholar Book Award 2017 National Association of Gifted Children Scholar Book of the Year Award In Excellence Gaps in Education, Jonathan A. Plucker and Scott J. Peters shine a spotlight on “excellence gaps”—the achievement gaps among subgroups of students performing at the highest levels of achievement. Much of the focus of recent education reform has been on closing gaps in achievement between students from different racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic backgrounds by bringing all students up to minimum levels of proficiency. Yet issues related to excellence gaps have been largely absent from discussions about how to improve our schools and communities. Plucker and Peters argue that these significant gaps reflect the existence of a persistent talent underclass in the United States among African American, Hispanic, Native American, and poor students, resulting in an incalculable loss of potential among our fastest growing populations. Drawing on the latest research and a wide range of national and international data, the authors outline the scope of the problem and make the case that excellence gaps should be targeted for elimination. They identify promising interventions for talent development already underway in schools and provide a detailed review of potential strategies, including universal screening, flexible grouping, targeted programs, and psychosocial interventions. Excellence Gaps in Education has the potential for changing our national conversation about equity and excellence and bringing fresh attention to the needs of high-potential students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Download or read book Multicultural Education written by James A. Banks and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Advanced Placement Program Benefits Mainly Well Prepared Students Who Pass AP Exams Issues in College Readiness written by ACT, Inc., National Center for Educational Achievement and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many policymakers and education leaders have embraced the Advanced Placement (AP) Program as a tool to strengthen the high school curriculum and prepare students for college. The popularity of the AP program among these policy leaders reflects their belief that the traditional high school curriculum has often failed to provide rigorous courses with well-specified curricular content and end-of-course examinations to verify that students have mastered that content--and that AP courses and exams can supply the rigor missing from the high school curriculum. Further, some policymakers have sought to expand the AP program in schools serving primarily minority and low-income students, in the belief that access to AP courses will promote educational equity and greater readiness for college and career among these students. Are these beliefs supported by the evidence? From 2002 to 2006, the National Center for Educational Achievement (NCEA) conducted research on the relationship between students' participation in AP courses in high school and their later success in college--relationships that are often misunderstood or misinterpreted. The research is summarized in a report (Dougherty, Mellor, & Jian, 2006) and a book chapter (Dougherty & Mellor, 2010). This brief highlights the four major findings of this research. These findings are: (1) Taking AP Courses Alone Is Not Related to College Success; (2) Taking AP Courses and Passing AP Exams Is What Matters; (3) Low-Income and Minority Students Have Low AP Exam Passing Rates; and (4) Academic Preparation in the Early Grades is Critical for AP Readiness.
Download or read book Disrupting Tradition written by William F. Tate and published by National Council of Teachers of English. This book was released on 2011-01 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditionally, researchers and mathematics education practitioners have been engaged in parallel play, yet they have been segregated by the norms and cultural practises of their distinct institutions and professional reward systems. Rarely do mutually dependent and informing intellectual pathways emerge. This book explores what happens when tradition is disrupted by one purposefully designed research and practise pathway. This book offers insights into, and examples of, developing mutually interdependent research and practise processes as part of efforts to improve teacher and leadership capacity, as well as positively influence student learning and related outcomes. This book raises valuable questions for the mathematics education community. What forms have research and practise pathways taken? What lessons have been learned from collaborations? These questions are examined to illustrate where strategic partnerships have linked research to both the design and implementation of practise and programmatic endeavors and to generate evidence to guide both educational decision making and routine modifications related to school mathematics. Editor William F. Tate offers remarks about the future of research and practise collaborations in mathematics education and maintains that research and practise collaborations should be a standard regimen in movements to improve mathematics teaching and learning.
Download or read book Opening the Gates to AP Equity written by Andrew Ray Armstrong and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advanced Placement (AP) courses engage high school students with college curriculum taught by trained high school teachers, with an opportunity for students to earn college credit by passing the end-of-course AP exam. AP has evolved into an indicator of school quality, instructional rigor, and a consideration in the college admissions process. AP enrollment and exam performance outcomes for White students disproportionately surpass those for Black students. This study attempts to inform practice, policy, and programming toward more equitable enrollment outcomes for Black students through a single case study. The selected case school was the only high school among 38 in central Virginia serving a significant proportion of both Black and White students demonstrating proportional AP enrollment between the Black and White student populations. Evidence gathered in the single case study through interviews and document review was analyzed to answer the research question: how do school-level practices and policies influence proportional AP enrollment for Black and White students at a central Virginia high school? Coding and narrative analysis were used to assess the case school's practices, policies, and characteristics in the context of the four categories of school-based factors associated with equitable AP enrollment established by prior literature: curriculum characteristics, teacher training and awareness, family engagement and outreach, and student identification and recommendation processes. Equity was defined using overlapping social, racial, and educational equity frameworks within education and public administration. Findings showed that course recommendation processes, teacher training, unique school-based programming, course scheduling, instructional techniques toward increased rigor, and parent outreach are among the most significant school-level factors distinguishing the case school in its achievement of equitable AP enrollment between Black and White students, but that those school-level factors must be administered, executed, and nurtured in a school characterized by positive and encouraging relationships among students, staff, and leadership. It is recommended that equitable outcomes become a clear feature and requirement of local, state, and federal policy to prompt school personnel to work toward equity between Black and White students in AP enrollment and in the various processes and outcomes within public education. It is further recommended that policies and practices place an explicit premium on the power of relationships among stakeholders in each school in achieving equitable outcomes.
Download or read book Despite the Best Intentions written by Amanda E. Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the surface, Riverview High School looks like the post-racial ideal. Serving an enviably affluent, diverse, and liberal district, the school is well-funded, its teachers are well-trained, and many of its students are high achieving. Yet Riverview has not escaped the same unrelenting question that plagues schools throughout America: why is it that even when all of the circumstances seem right, black and Latino students continue to lag behind their peers? Through five years' worth of interviews and data-gathering at Riverview, John Diamond and Amanda Lewis have created a rich and disturbing portrait of the achievement gap that persists more than fifty years after the formal dismantling of segregation. As students progress from elementary school to middle school to high school, their level of academic achievement increasingly tracks along racial lines, with white and Asian students maintaining higher GPAs and standardized testing scores, taking more advanced classes, and attaining better college admission results than their black and Latino counterparts. Most research to date has focused on the role of poverty, family stability, and other external influences in explaining poor performance at school, especially in urban contexts. Diamond and Lewis instead situate their research in a suburban school, and look at what factors within the school itself could be causing the disparity. Most crucially, they challenge many common explanations of the 'racial achievement gap,' exploring what race actually means in this situation, and why it matters. An in-depth study with far-reaching consequences, Despite the Best Intentions revolutionizes our understanding of both the knotty problem of academic disparities and the larger question of the color line in American society.
Download or read book Focus in High School Mathematics written by Marilyn E. Strutchens and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No matter what the mathematics class, infusing reasoning and sense making into the daily mathematical experience of all high school students is crucial. ""All high school students"" includes low-performing students; gifted students; students of different racial, sociolinguistic and socioeconomic status; students with disabilites and students who are mathematically talented. The writers of this volume hope to further the dialogue about how to create for all students empowering mathematical experiences that incorporate reasoning and sense making.
Download or read book Grading for Equity written by Joe Feldman and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Joe Feldman shows us how we can use grading to help students become the leaders of their own learning and lift the veil on how to succeed. . . . This must-have book will help teachers learn to implement improved, equity-focused grading for impact." —Zaretta Hammond, Author of Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain Crack open the grading conversation Here at last—and none too soon—is a resource that delivers the research base, tools, and courage to tackle one of the most challenging and emotionally charged conversations in today’s schools: our inconsistent grading practices and the ways they can inadvertently perpetuate the achievement and opportunity gaps among our students. With Grading for Equity, Joe Feldman cuts to the core of the conversation, revealing how grading practices that are accurate, bias-resistant, and motivational will improve learning, minimize grade inflation, reduce failure rates, and become a lever for creating stronger teacher-student relationships and more caring classrooms. Essential reading for schoolwide and individual book study or for student advocates, Grading for Equity provides A critical historical backdrop, describing how our inherited system of grading was originally set up as a sorting mechanism to provide or deny opportunity, control students, and endorse a "fixed mindset" about students’ academic potential—practices that are still in place a century later A summary of the research on motivation and equitable teaching and learning, establishing a rock-solid foundation and a "true north" orientation toward equitable grading practices Specific grading practices that are more equitable, along with teacher examples, strategies to solve common hiccups and concerns, and evidence of effectiveness Reflection tools for facilitating individual or group engagement and understanding As Joe writes, "Grading practices are a mirror not just for students, but for us as their teachers." Each one of us should start by asking, "What do my grading practices say about who I am and what I believe?" Then, let’s make the choice to do things differently . . . with Grading for Equity as a dog-eared reference.
Download or read book The Toolbox Revisited written by Clifford Adelman and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Toolbox Revisited is a data essay that follows a nationally representative cohort of students from high school into postsecondary education, and asks what aspects of their formal schooling contribute to completing a bachelor's degree by their mid-20s. The universe of students is confined to those who attended a four-year college at any time, thus including students who started out in other types of institutions, particularly community colleges.
Download or read book Excellence Equity and Access written by Justyna Plichta King and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This dissertation examines educators' perceptions regarding open access Advanced Placement (AP) program courses and their impact on non-traditional AP students in one suburban school district. The data were collected during the 2009-2010 school year through a 15-item Likert scale (and one open-ended item) survey which was disseminated during participating schools' staff meetings in January 2010. Four out of the five traditional schools' educators participated (N = 91) in the study. The relevant history of the AP program and leadership in a leading open access to AP school district and how AP affected the curriculum and policy making in the district is reviewed. An analysis on the purpose of college-preparatory curriculum, the role of motivation and theory, as well as a synthesis of perceptions of traditional and nontraditional AP students is presented"--Abstract.
