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…

The Advanced Placement (AP) program is a cooperative educational effort of secondary schools, colleges, and the College Board that consists of 30 college-level courses and examinations in 17 academic disciplines for highly motivated students in secondary schools. AP courses are offered in more than 11,000 high schools and are recognized by nearly…

This transcript produces verbatim a workshop on advanced placement (AP), international baccalaureate (IB), and other challenging high school courses. The major goal of the proceedings was to increase access and improve preparation in high schools. The sessions addressed the common perception that AP courses are elitist but that the number of…

This transcript reproduces a Department of Education/College Board sponsored discussion on ways to expand advanced placement (AP) opportunities in high schools. The deliberations opened with a presentation by Phil Chavez, an assistant principal in San Antonio, Texas, who outlined the genesis and development of the AP program in his predominantly…

The Arkansas Advanced Placement Incentive Program served as a charter for the establishment, organization, and administration of a program designed to improve the course offerings available to high school students. The act provided three incentives: (1) one-time equipment/materials grants; (2) teacher professional development reimbursements; and…

The Ventures in Education program, begun 10 years ago, includes honors-level curriculum, advanced placement courses, summer workshops, enrichment, a longer school day, and continued counseling and guidance. It has demonstrated that poor, disadvantaged high school students can learn to excel in demanding courses of study. (MSE)

Examines an Advanced Placement U.S. history classroom as a miniature common school to assess students' abilities to develop historically-grounded perspectives and engage in a moral debate. Finds that (1) students with little historical-grounding lacked an inclination toward a collective, ethical critique; and (2) exchange of historically-grounded…

A talented child's motivation and artistic gift can suffer when the environment at home and at school are inadequately supportive. It's crucial, therefore, for parents and teachers to understand that any child's involvement in the arts can enhance overall success in academics and in later life. It's just as important to learn about the many ways…

This article describes a grant-funded effort to improve the lives of academically able middle and high school students living in rural poverty. The program, Project Aspire, attempts to increase the number of these children in the most rigorous math and science coursework available in their schools. To that end, Project Aspire assists 14 school…

In this article, the author discusses AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), a program that enrolls the students who are most frequently marginalized in rigorous classes to prepare them for postsecondary education. The best predictor of success or failure in postsecondary education is the intensity and quality of secondary school…

Analyses based on fitting item response models to data from the College Board's Advanced Placement exams in Chemistry and United States History indicated that the constructed-response portion of the tests yielded little information over and above that provided by the multiple-choice sections. These tests also allow examinees to select subsets of…

A practicum was developed to increase the number and success rate of junior Honors English students--63 students who were 62% Latino and 38% African-American--taking the English Advanced Placement (AP) examinations. Test strategies that were designed to allay students' innate fears about tests in general and specifically about English language and…

This booklet describes the College Core Curriculum (CCC) program recently initiated at Phineas Banning Senior High School in Los Angeles, which is designed to encourage more students to become positive, effective learners and to better prepare them for postsecondary education. Following an outline of CCC's goals and a breakdown of its programs…

A competency-based automotive mechanics curriculum was developed at Big Bend Community College (Washington) in order to provide the basis for an advanced placement procedure for high school graduates and experienced adults through a competency assessment. In order to create the curriculum, Big Bend Community College automotive mechanics…

The curriculum guide for the Latin program of Dade County's secondary schools establishes a uniform sequential program and describes program expectancies for each level and type of course, to serve as a basis for planning appropriate instruction. An introductory section discusses the program definition, goal, offerings, study guide format, and…