Although Advanced Placement (AP) courses are intended to promote rigorous, college-level instruction for high school students, AP tests have been criticized for privileging breadth over depth. In response to both this criticism and to the 2002 National Research Council (NRC) report on STEM education, AP Biology, Chemistry, and Physics curricula…

Can participation in a 4-day workshop change science teachers' beliefs about reformed science teaching? We observe a significant difference between pre- and post-workshop surveys and explore an unexpected relationship involving teaching experience. Results of this exploratory study indicate a significant correlation between high school science…

At its most elemental level, dual enrollment--sometimes known as dual credit or concurrent enrollment--enrolls high school students in college-level courses. The exact nature of each dual enrollment program varies from state to state, but generally students earn college credits when they pass their classes. In this article, the author discusses…

We explore the impacts of a Consortium of rural high schools and colleges in Tennessee engaged in partnership activities to improve high school students' college and career readiness. These 29 Consortium schools received support from the federal Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) to scale up local promising practices, including distance and online…

The AP Achievement Institute I (APAI I) is a four-day professional development program offered to teachers and administrators by EXCELerator™, a district reform program operated by the College Board. The APAI I program is designed to help teachers develop effective AP instructional strategies for a diverse student body and to help district,…

As part of the Advanced Placement (AP) Program's commitment to continually enhance alignment with current best practices in college-level learning, the AP Program is currently evaluating and redesigning courses and exams, one of which launched during the 2013-2014 academic school year: AP chemistry. The history of the AP chemistry course and…

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation's major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that…

Despite all intentions in the course of the Bologna Process and decades of investment into improving the social dimension, results in many national and international studies show that inequity remains stubbornly persistent, and that inequity based on socio-economic status, parental education, gender, country-of-origin, rural background and more…

Educating students in public schools has never been at a higher priority. As this nation enters the informational-based economy public schools are going to be required to educate far more students at a higher and more rigorous level. Inspired by theories of educational equity, this study sought to explore the problem that not all students in…

Administrator perspectives regarding current and potential increased participation in post-secondary educational opportunities by Michigan high school students were explored in this descriptive quantitative study. Targeted concerns included current institutional levels of involvement, personal knowledge concerning program rules and regulations,…

The State of Florida Department of Education provides pre-and-post-graduation data for public high school graduates throughout Florida. These data were used for the present report to produce data sets for all M-DCPS regular high schools and charter high schools graduating students in 2009 and 2010. Summary data for the district are also provided.…

The Advanced Placement Program is growing at a striking rate in US high schools and at the same time being abandoned by high-status schools. This paper explores the history of the Advanced Placement Program, from its roots in the 1950s as a programme for challenging high-achieving students at high-status schools, through its equity-motivated…

The State of Florida Department of Education provides pre-and-post-graduation data for public high school graduates throughout Florida. These data were used for the present report to produce data sets for all M-DCPS regular high schools and charter high schools graduating students in 2008 and 2009. Summary data for the district are also provided.…

Courses in advanced placement (AP) Spanish language and AP Spanish literature are intended to provide students with college-level instruction comparable to a fifth- or sixth-semester conversation and composition experience and to a one-semester introduction to literature experience, respectively. In spite of clearly articulated college…

Both of the national efforts to reform education (AAAS, 1993; NRC, 1996) promoted professional development experiences that engage teachers in authentic scientific research. This qualitative multiple case study used legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) as a way to examine the process by which teachers became a part of the laboratory community…