The College Board's Advanced Placement courses are often the pride of secondary schools, but students' success in them is a function of the teachers' qualifications. (Author/MSE)

This report looks at 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…

The purpose of this book is to allow high school students to examine the relationship between Cuba and the United States by studying a rich collection of primary materials and classroom-ready lessons which incorporate those materials. This book contains materials from 27 primary sources, including texts of speeches before the House and Senate,…

Reviews the College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) program, presenting evidence that the average test performance has dropped and pointing out that the College Board's scale and claims for AP qualification disagree seriously with college standards. Suggests that "advanced placement" is coming closer to "placement." (Author/SLD)

In the year 2000, the Texas Education Agency and the Texas A&M University System teamed up to create an initiative called the University Faculty Fellows Program. Spearheaded by Texas A&M International University in Laredo, the program paired up faculty from the university with area Advanced Placement (AP) teachers in a variety of…

The history of the College Entrance Examination Board's Advanced Placement Program is chronicled from its conception in 1951 through early developmental stages and 40 years of implementation. Issues discussed include test development, funding, administration at the institutional level, expansion of curriculum areas and testing options, teacher…

The extent to which log-linear smoothing could improve the accuracy of common-item equating by the chained equipercentile method in small samples of examinees was investigated with responses from a 100-item test and 93,283 examinees. Smoothing reduced the sample size required for a given degree of accuracy. (SLD)

Describes a nationwide pilot project to incorporate intensive journalistic writing into honors or Advanced Placement English courses. Discusses how 15 experienced high school journalism teachers and their classes participated in the project, which focused on improving students' writing and helping them prepare for the College Board's English…

The College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) Program, which allows students to take college-level courses while in high school, enjoyed tremendous growth in the 1990s. Despite overall growth, small rural schools and high poverty schools continue to offer relatively few AP courses, and black, Hispanic, and low income students remain grossly…

The National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Association of State Boards of Education jointly devised recommendations in 11 areas in order to achieve America's education goals for every student since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. These recommendations included giving…

The 1986-87 Teaching Enrichment Activities to Minorities (TEAM) Project provided special education to identified minority students who exhibited characteristics that might make them eligible for placement into an advanced academic program. The 1986-87 TEAM Project operated in 16 elementary schools and served approximately 550 pupils. An evaluation…

Students at 15 Wake County Public School System, North Carolina, (WCPSS) high schools took approximately 4,878 Advanced Placement (AP) examinations offered by the College Board in 2001-2002. With 20% of all juniors and seniors in the district taking at least one AP examination, the percent attaining a score of 3 or higher on a 5-point scale (the…

Numerous research studies have been conducted to inform various aspects of the AP Program throughout its history. This research report summarizes research that has been conducted on the validity of AP Exam grades for course placement, AP Examination participation and student outcomes, AP course participation and student outcomes, and comparisons…

This document raises several discussion topics concerning low-income high school students in relation to Pell grants and Advanced Placement (AP) classes. It points out that bright, low-income high school students can perform college-level work either by taking Advanced Placement (AP) classes or by attending classes at a local college. AP classes…

Compares the number of students per 1,000 12th graders who took Advanced Placement (AP) examinations over a 13-year period. Includes differences by student gender and race/ethnicity. Highlights the dramatic increase in the number of students taking AP examinations. (Author/SLD)