To evaluate how Advanced Placement (AP) courses affect college-going, we randomly assigned the offer of enrollment into an AP science course to over 1,800 students in twenty-three schools that had not previously offered the course. We find no AP course effects on students' college entrance exam scores (SAT/ACT). As expected, AP course-takers are…

Dual enrollment (DuE) is an opportunity for high school students to take college-level courses. Participation in dual enrollment allows students to earn high school and college credit simultaneously; thus, decreasing students' time to complete a college degree and saving them tuition costs. Other questions answered in the guide include: (1) How…

Participation in accelerated learning programs (defined in this study as Advanced Placement, Dual Enrollment, and International Baccalaureate) continues to expand across the US. As such, it is important to better our understanding of the relationship among these three programs concerning measures of student postsecondary achievement. Prior…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate disproportionality with respect to Advanced Placement (AP) opportunities for students of color, post qualification, for special education services via the label Specific Learning Disability (SLD). Multiple data sources including existing data, surveys, and semi structured interviews were…

For Massive Open Online Courses to have trustworthy credentials, assessments in these courses must be valid, reliable, and fair. Item Response Theory provides a robust approach to evaluating these properties. However, for this theory to be applicable, certain properties of the assessment items should be met, among them that item difficulties are…

This Research Brief summarizes the performance of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) students participating in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. The IB program was offered at six M-DCPS high schools in 2022-2023. Over 3,200 assessments were completed by M-DCPS students in 30 subject areas in 2022-2023. The number of IB…

In this study, we used an extreme case approach to examine the facilitators and barriers of cognitive engagement among freshmen in Advanced Placement (AP) or Pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. Twelve ninth-grade AP/IB students participated in semistructured interviews focused on cognitive engagement. After analyzing the data using a…

Taking the example of educational biographies of alumni of an IB World School in the Lisbon region, the article aims to explore the potential of the concept of transnational educational spaces for biographical research. We focus on the biographical stage of transition to higher education as a crucial phase of students' biographies where we can…

Many schools and districts administer ACT® Aspire® to measure progress towards college and career readiness. A recent study suggests that ACT Aspire scores can also be used to help identify students who are academically prepared and may benefit from some of the more rigorous courses offered in high schools across the nation, including Advanced…

The purpose of Advanced Placement (AP) courses is to prepare students for college. Many colleges and universities award college credit for students who are able to make a passing score on the AP exam. Data from the College Board shines light on the inequities present with African American students and their enrollment in AP courses. Moreover,…

This study explores the direction and magnitude of racial disparities on three advanced placement (AP) computer science (CS) exams, namely AP CS Principles, AP CS A, and AP CS AB, based on the test scores of more than one million students who have taken AP CS exams between 1997 and 2020. Using Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope procedures we found…

The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is a biennial survey required by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights since 1968. This survey collects data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools. Using CRDC data, this fact sheet explores and presents the following data for English learner (EL)…

Some researchers have questioned whether there is a causal connection between Advanced Placement (AP) STEM coursetaking and the choice of a STEM college major and a STEM occupation. Their research findings strongly suggest that if prior interest in STEM as well as other possible confounders are taken into account, the relationships of taking AP…

Background: Early Colleges (ECs) are a type of rapidly growing dual enrollment program proven to be successful in helping underrepresented students get a jumpstart on their postsecondary education. To date, the most rigorous evidence on the impact of ECs has come from two lottery-based natural experiments conducted by the SERVE Center (Edmunds et…

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) celebrates its 60th Anniversary in 2022 as an international mobility "passport", offering potential entry to universities around the world. Globally, 3,600 schools in July 2022 offer the IBDP. Within these, there is a sub-grouping of well-established private "elite traditional…