Research shows that when students have access to advanced coursework opportunities, they work harder and are more engaged in school, have fewer absences and suspensions and higher graduation rates. Unfortunately, many Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds lack equitable access to advanced coursework opportunities, such…

Research shows that when students have access to advanced coursework opportunities, they work harder and are more engaged in school, have fewer absences and suspensions and higher graduation rates. Unfortunately, many Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds lack equitable access to advanced coursework opportunities, such…

In 2018, in response to the proposed elimination of physics at a predominately Hispanic and socioeconomically disadvantaged (SED) high school, the Northern California/Nevada chapter of the AAPT investigated school demographics and their effect on physics offerings in public high schools in our region. As access was a key issue, the focus was on…

This memorandum provides information on Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course enrollment, exam participation, and exam performance during the 2021-2022 school year in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The College Board shifted their testing procedures in 2019-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the…

This memorandum provides information related to Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course enrollment, exam participation, and exam performance during the 2020-2021 school year in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In this memo, the results of 2021 students were compared with those of 2019 students. It is important…

This memorandum provides information pertinent to the participation and performance of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations for the Class of 2019 in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In 2019, 67.6 percent of MCPS graduates took one or more AP exams, a rate that was 20.7 and 28.7 percentage points higher…

This memorandum provides information related to Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course enrollment, exam participation, and exam performance during the 2018-2019 school year in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In 2019, all 25 MCPS comprehensive high schools offered AP courses and 8 high schools provided IB…

Dual credit courses give high school students the potential to earn both college and high school credit at the same time, either through completion of a college-level course or through performance on an exam. The 2019 Supplemental Operating Budget (Senate Bill [SB] 6032, Sec. 501 [30]) provided funding intended to reduce the cost of dual credit…

This article documents the patterns of White-Black and White-Hispanic enrollment gaps in Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual Enrollment (DE) programs across thousands of school districts in the United States by merging several data sources. We show that the vast majority of districts have racial enrollment gaps in both programs, with wider gaps in AP…

The Advanced Placement (AP) program offers an opportunity for students to earn college credit and develop college-ready skills in high school. The curriculum was initially designed for "superior" students at exclusive private schools. Recently, however, the AP program has expanded to serve more students from marginalized backgrounds, and…

Advanced Placement (AP) and dual enrollment (DE) are the two most popular programs that allow students to earn college credits while in high school. Researchers have noted several benefits of college acceleration programs on students' postsecondary outcomes. Particularly, these programs offer the opportunity to improve college attendance rates…

The College Board released national Advanced Placement (AP) Program Results: Class of 2018 on February 6, 2019. This memorandum provides information pertinent to the AP and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance for the Class of 2018 in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The AP exam results in MCPS were…

The College Board released national Advanced Placement (AP) Cohort Results. This memorandum provides information pertinent to the AM international Baccalaureate (IB) participation and performance for the Class of 2017 in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The AP exam results in MCPS were bench marked with the results for the state of…

In 2015, legislation to improve access to dual-credit programs and to reduce disparities in access and completion--particularly for low income and underrepresented students--was enacted. The new law focused on expanding access to College in the High School but acknowledged issues in other dual-credit programs and reinforced the notion that cost…

Acceleration programs are academically challenging courses in which high school students can simultaneously earn credit toward a high school diploma and a postsecondary degree (dual credit). These programs include Advanced Placement courses, concurrent-enrollment courses, Postsecondary Enrollment Options courses (a dual-enrollment program in…