Many states provide incentives to students, teachers, and schools for the participation and success of students on Advanced Placement (AP) examinations administered by the College Board. The purpose of this article is to examine whether these incentives help students enroll and succeed in AP exams. An analysis of nationally representative AP exam…

The Advanced Placement (AP) program offers a promising strategy for promoting college success--one that will be most effective when students are prepared for rigorous coursework and when that coursework meets high standards. As Advanced Placement coursework emerges as an instrument of public policy, educators and policymakers need to understand…

The transition to adulthood in the United States has changed in recent decades as many of the traditional milestones that mark adulthood, such as household establishment and marriage, have changed or been delayed (McLanahan et al. 2010; Arnett 2000). Among these changes are increased participation and attainment in education; extenuation of…

The Middle College National Consortium (MCNC) is one of 11 intermediary organizations awarded funds by the Gates Foundation to establish Early College High Schools (ECHSs). The MCNC is a school-practitioner network of more than 30 middle colleges (high schools located on college campuses) committed to a set of shared beliefs and instructional…

Opportunity gaps are not just a phenomenon that exists among low-achieving and average students; they are a significant feature among high-performing students as well. We present a review of research-based practices that support students of color such that they achieve at high levels in middle and secondary schools. We identify five key strategies…

Advanced Placement (AP), which enables high school students to take introductory college-level courses, is the nation's oldest example of a rigorous, common curriculum. Students who score well on AP exams are more likely to persist in college and earn a degree. The Advanced Placement Expansion project of the National Governors Association Center…

This article explores the growing popularity of Advanced Placement (AP) courses in U.S. high schools and examines whether AP courses are the solution to the nation's perceived academic gap. Some researchers do not think that AP courses are a panacea for improving science in U.S. schools based on a recent study's finding that AP courses do not…

Presented at the Annual Dream Deferred Conference in Los Angeles, CA in April 2008. This presentation explores the participation and performance of African American students in the SAT and AP programs and use data to inform ways to better support and encourage achievement and college success.

Presented at the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) School Summit in San Antonio, TX in July 2008. This presentation explores the participation and performance of African American students in the SAT and AP programs and use data to inform ways to better support and encourage achievment and college success.

The authors present results of a 2-year mixed-methods evaluation study of Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID; 2006), an academic intervention initiative supported by the Advanced Placement (AP) Incentive Program that targets middle-achieving students who have been underrepresented in advanced classes and 4-year colleges and that aims…

The 2013 edition of the "Annual Condition of Education Report" provides a rich tapestry of information about Iowa's education system. The data presented in the report examines longitudinal trends about Iowa's students, teachers, and schools from many perspectives. Information such as demographic characteristics, assessment results,…

Despite the growing use of writing assessments in standardized tests, little is known about coaching effects on writing assessments. Therefore, this study tested the effects of short-term coaching on standardized writing tests, and the transfer of those effects to other writing genres. College freshmen were randomly assigned to either training…

Having celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2005, the Advanced Placement (AP) program has received quite a bit of attention in the past few years due mainly to its exponential growth in popularity. While much of this attention has been positive, a significant amount of criticism has attacked the assumptions of the AP program, aligning it with…

Nearly 7,000 students drop out of the nation's public high schools each school day, and 3,000 of them are in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Altogether, an estimated 1.3 million teenagers in the United States abandon high school each year without earning a diploma. In 1,700 of the nation's high schools, less than 60 percent of…