The International Baccalaureate, a special program for bright public and private high school students, is described in transcriptions of broadcasts from National Public Radio. Over half the 43 schools in Canada and the United States that offer the program are public. For the approximately 1,200 high school juniors and seniors in North America…

The purpose of this study was to attempt to identify those factors that influence a high school student's success on the Advanced Placement (AP) Examinations by examining and comparing the variables contained in the high school records of former AP participants. A total of 248 high school students participated in the research. The criterion for…

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM FOR ACADEMICALLY ABLE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ENROLLED IN THE COLLEGE DURING THE SUMMER SESSION BETWEEN THEIR JUNIOR AND SENIOR YEARS. A QUESTIONNAIRE GIVEN TO 40 STUDENTS SHOWED A VERY FAVORABLE REACTION TO THE PROGRAM. STUDENTS FOUND IT BENEFICIAL IN…

Syracuse University's Project Advance, a collaborative program between the university and high schools that allows students an opportunity to earn college credit while they are in high school, is described. The program also provides teaching-oriented faculty development, and conducts research on effective instruction. (Author/MLW)

This paper attempts to determine whether increased levels of involvement among socially advantaged parents accounts for children's track placements. Research has shown that students of higher social classes have a greater advantage in attaining placement in elite math sequences. Data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (1988) was…

This study examined the effect of specified demographic and psychological variables on the academic achievement of high school students from urban and rural settings (n=177). Psychosocial variables considered in this study were familism (perceived closeness of the family), perceived discrimination, time management, and home and school factors.…

Fitting item response models to data from 2 Advanced Placement exams (18,462 and 82,842 students) demonstrates that constructed response items add little to information provided by multiple choice and that scoring on the basis of student item selection gives almost as much information as scoring on the basis of answers. (SLD)

Random samples of free-response tests (200 males and 200 females) were taken from the 1986 U.S. History advanced placement examination. Rescoring focusing on historical content and analyses indicate that free-response tasks, in contrast with objective tests, may have inherent characteristics that reward females' English-composition abilities. (SLD)

As the sponsors of the Cohort at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia--a program to increase the number of minority male students in Advanced Placement (AP) classes--the authors view their work with the young men in this program as very similar to coaching a team. The Cohort asks these young men to challenge and push themselves; to test…

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 Dual Credit Handbook from Pueblo Community College (CO) provides information and guidelines to assist instructors in meeting their assignment. These guidelines apply to dual credit courses offered to high school students during their regular school hours, for which students receive high school- and college-level credit simultaneously. This…

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…

Describes a specialized school for the arts for high school students. Discusses courses in ceramics, metal working, photography, advancement placement in studio art, and art history. Explains the relationship between this specialized school and the surrounding high schools that these students attend for other subjects. (KM)

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…