More than ever before, educators across the United States are enabling a wider and more ethnically diverse proportion of students to achieve success in AP[R]. Significant inequities, however, which jeopardize traditionally underserved students' chances at college success, remain. This "Report" uses a combination of state, national, and…

Presented at the Annual National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) in New York in March 2008. This presentation explores how different item weighting can affect the effective weights, validity coefficents and test reliability of composite scores among test takers.

This brief describes the Academic Pathways to Access and Student Success (APASS) project, a research initiative that identifies and disseminates information about existing and emerging academic pathways that extend from high school to college. Drawing upon the results of a 50-state survey, an extensive review of literature and consultation with…

Only one-third of America's workforce has any post-secondary education, yet 60% of new jobs in the 21st century require higher education. The President has set a new national goal to ensure that every high school student graduates and is ready for the workplace or college. While No Child Left Behind will prepare a new generation of students with…

What are ways to encourage minority students and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds to take and succeed in AP classes? Advanced Placement courses and their final national standardized exams began in 1954 to help students, mostly white males, get through college more quickly so that they would have more time in the work force. 50 years later,…

The College Board's Advanced Placement Program was founded in 1955 to provide high school students an opportunity to take on the challenges of college-level work while still in high school. For 46 years, students have enrolled in AP courses, taken rigorous end-of-course AP Examinations to demonstrate their achievement, and frequently have received…

Information on test-takers collected at the time of examinations provides a rich description of AP students, but what are the characteristics of their teachers? The current study provides a glimpse into these characteristics by summarizing the results of the largest survey of AP teachers to date (32,109 responses). The AP Teacher Survey contained…

Advanced Placement social studies courses are being used more and more to improve the credentials of college applicants. Those teaching these courses are under increasing pressure from parents and school administrators to allow more and more students to take the AP courses and to improve the AP scores of students. The present standards movement…

Presented at the Advanced Placement Annual Conference (APAC) in Las Vegas, July 2007. This presentation explores the demographic and course-taking patterns that have been identified behind what students take AP exams and how to best reach the population of students that are not currently taking AP exams.

The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program was offered in 10 high schools and 6 middle schools during the 2005-2006 school year. AVID began in the Austin Independent School District (AISD) in 1999 as a way of helping more students become eligible for college. Students who were considered academically "average," based on…

Teachers and administrators were surveyed to determine the extent to which AP Vertical Teams for English were implemented in schools. Results indicate that even though the goals of the AP Vertical Teams were only partially realized, there was some positive impact on student exposure to Pre-AP instruction and AP courses and student performance on…

This article approaches the concept of culture from an anthropological perspective. It places various culture concepts in their historical contexts and discusses several models that are utilized in research in international education. It is argued that the lack of a theory is a major reason for the culture concept's proliferation. A theory is…

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) "Special Education at a Glance," which includes a copy of the "Guide to Planning and Assessing School-Based Special Education Programs," provides in a single document, information about the special education population at each MCPS school, including enrollment, staffing, special education…

There is a strong and consistent relationship between PSAT/NMSQT scores and AP Examination grades for nearly all courses--higher scores on the PSAT/NMSQT indicate a higher probability of success on AP Examinations. PSAT/NMSQT verbal or mathematics scores are often more highly related to AP Examination grades than overall high school GPA, number of…

This report examines the ways that credit-based transition programs (CBTPs) may help middle- and low-achieving students enter and succeed in college. It highlights promising practices used by CBTPs to help students who might have been considered noncollege-bound prepare for college credit course work. The report also discusses the challenges that…