VP Ileana Rodriguez

I am delighted to join the College Board’s Midwestern Regional Office. The work of educators at the school, district and state levels in our region is inspiring, and I look forward to engaging in initiatives to strengthen college readiness and success among our students.

My experience in the community college environment engendered in me the conviction that connecting with educators across sectors, from K-16, is essential to meeting the larger challenges we face as a nation. I believe that the College Board, with a membership that spans the spectrum of learning institutions and education organizations, is uniquely positioned to facilitate the kind of collaboration needed to meet the education challenges of the 21st century.

The Midwestern Regional Council and the Program Planning Committee have developed an outstanding program for the 2009 Midwestern Regional Forum that will provide great opportunities for educators from different areas to connect through discussions on the importance of rigor and a holistic approach to college readiness. Our regional forum will be held at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, Feb. 8-10. Da Chen, an award-winning author and professionally trained Chinese bamboo flutist will be our opening speaker, and our closing brunch will feature Juan Williams, one of America’s leading journalists and a news analyst for National Public Radio. Click here for additional information.

Midwestern Regional Assembly elections will be held this fall, and I urge all member delegates to participate. Ballots will be mailed in mid-November, and the slate contains several positions:

• Chair-Elect of the Midwestern Regional Assembly
• Representatives to the Midwestern Regional Council
• Midwestern Representative to the National Academic Assembly Council
• Midwestern Representative to the National Nominating Committee

Your participation in the voting process is a benefit and responsibility of College Board membership.  Members of these bodies serve as leaders and provide advice on matters of importance to the more than 5,400 institutions and organizations that constitute our membership. 

I thank the MRO staff and members of the regional council for their warm welcome and valuable support thus far. They are a hardworking and passionate group and, as always, we look forward to serving the Midwestern Region. 

Ileana Rodriguez joined the College Board in September as its new vice president in the Midwestern Region, after serving as a member of the Midwestern Regional Council, Midwestern Regional Forum Program Planning Committee and on the College Board’s Task Force on Admissions in the 21st Century.

Rodriguez comes to the College Board from Triton College, a community college near Chicago, where she was a member of the psychology faculty; the director of institutional research, assessment and curriculum; and the vice president of academic affairs and student services. Announcing Rodriguez’s arrival, Eric Cantor, senior vice president of regional and account services at the College Board, said, “With 15 years’ experience in higher education, Rodriguez will provide significant experience and leadership to the Midwest team and the College Board. She has superb leadership skills and a penchant for simply making things happen.” Rodriguez was born and raised in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and earned a bachelor’s in psychology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. She moved to the United States in 1990 and attended Michigan State University, where she earned a master’s and a Ph.D. in social and personality psychology.

“I am very excited to join the College Board and have the opportunity to work with our members and colleagues throughout the Midwest in the pursuit of our mission of connecting students to college success,” said Rodriguez. As a former community college faculty member and administrator, she is keenly aware of the opportunities that college readiness affords students and the challenges associated with underpreparedness.

“The current economic conditions and the changes we can expect in the future with increased globalization and changes in student demographics call for inspired approaches to education innovation and reform,” continued Rodriguez. “I am honored to have the opportunity to work hand in hand with an outstanding regional council and with passionate colleagues in the Midwestern Regional Office.”

Rodriguez believes that the College Board is uniquely positioned to move forward and inspire the kind of innovation needed in the Midwestern Region and in the nation. “As a teacher, I always felt the greatest accomplishment when a student turned that corner and you could see how a new learning experience had transformed them in some small way,” Rodriguez said. “Now at the College Board, I look forward to supporting the work of many dedicated educators across the 13 states we serve in our region and seeking ways of making those wonderful moments of learning and growth effective steps toward college readiness and success.”

The DOE selects grant recipients from school districts, state and local educational agencies or national nonprofit educational entities with expertise in providing Advanced Placement services. The competitive three-year awards must be used to expand access for low-income individuals to Advanced Placement programs. Some of the options funded by these grants include teacher training, development of pre-AP courses, coordination and articulation between grade levels to prepare students for academic achievement in AP classes, books and supplies, and participation in online AP courses.

The Kansas State Department of Education will use the grant to implement a comprehensive initiative to give high-poverty and predominantly rural high schools in 97 counties the opportunity to compete for $15,000 subgrants that may be used to develop AP courses, pay for students to enroll in online AP courses through approved online vendors and provide professional development for teachers. Schools will be required to provide a 25 percent match from nonfederal funds. To better prepare students for advanced course work, the project will provide professional development opportunities for districts wishing to initiate either the traditional vertical teaming strategies or implement the SpringBoard® English/Language Arts and Mathematics curriculum. Teachers also will have the opportunity to attend AP Summer Institutes, workshops and AP Exam rater trainings. An online AP resource center will be created to give students, teachers and other school staff access to information, instructional resources, tutoring, training and technical assistance related to AP courses. In addition, the project will make available to eligible schools online AP Chinese Language and Culture and Japanese Language and Culture courses.

Implemented in collaboration with the South Dakota Department of Education, South Dakota Virtual School and other partners, this project will expand opportunities for students in rural and remote areas of South Dakota to access and succeed in classroom and online AP courses. The project will serve 30 high-poverty, rural high schools and their feeder middle or junior high schools. Building on the Learning Power program funded by the National Math and Science Initiative, the project helps these schools develop and implement plans to expand their AP course offerings in English language arts, mathematics and science. Students participating in online AP courses will receive ongoing academic support and guidance from a local faculty member or other professional. The project will provide extensive training and on-site coaching for Vertical Teams of teachers in grades seven through 12 to support their implementation of an aligned, rigorous curriculum that will improve student preparation for advanced courses. AP teachers and students will be eligible for financial incentives based on student performance on AP Exams.

Milwaukee Public Schools plans a wide-ranging set of initiatives to improve AP participation at six high-poverty high schools, with each increasing the number of AP English language arts, mathematics and science courses offered. One school also will develop and offer AP Chinese Language and Culture and AP Japanese Language and Culture courses. AP teachers will receive intensive professional development through College Board Summer Institutes and workshops and a graduate course in writing instruction provided by the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee Writing Project.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction will deliver increased access to AP courses in 46 high-poverty schools across the state — including 19 high schools and 27 middle schools — through traditional, face-to-face instruction, Interactive Television, the Wisconsin Virtual School or a combination of these approaches. Expanding access to AP Chinese Language and Culture courses will be among the project’s priorities. Trained Local Education Guides will provide support to low-income students, helping them access tutoring and utilize online resources such as the Wisconsin Virtual School’s StudentEdge, which includes AP practice tests; assistance in preparing for the PSAT/NMSQT®, SAT® and ACT; and college information. Vertical and horizontal team training to the schools’ teachers, department chairs, counselors and administrators will be offered to improve student preparation for advanced courses. AP and pre-AP teachers will receive intensive professional development in the content areas they teach through annual AP Summer Institutes. The project also will provide students in the targeted schools financial incentives for each grade of 3 or higher on an AP Exam.

The Osseo School District hosted 15 College Board training sessions between April and May 2008. The workshops were made possible by a grant from the Minnesota Department of Education. These one-day sessions engaged nearly 200 participants from the Osseo School District for Advanced Placement® and Pre-AP® training.

The Osseo School District has far surpassed the professional development goals originally articulated in the state grant, one of which was to send 10 to 12 teachers to AP® professional development at College Board Summer Institutes. This summer, Osseo had 132 teachers registered to participate and 63 teachers who had completed the institutes.  As one senior high principal said of the Raised Academic Achievement initiative, “…this is the most exciting initiative I have seen in a long time. Teachers are energized and anxious to implement AP strategies and raise the bar for all students!” 

Principal Mendolia of Brooklyn Junior High in Osseo said that 70 percent of his staff attended at least one of the Pre-AP training sessions. This will offer Brooklyn’s ninth-grade students the opportunity to take AP Human Geography and AP Biology during the 2009-10 school year. Participating in AP courses at the ninth-grade level gives students a jump start at AP rigor they’ve never been offered before.

Garden City Elementary and Woodland Elementary schools are an important part of the vertical planning and instruction essential for AP test success. Fifth- and sixth-grade teachers have been part of the professional development teaming and are integrating Pre-AP language and strategies into core curriculum instruction. When students transition to Brooklyn Junior High, Pre-AP concepts are not new, so these teachers can immediately increase the challenge level by building on the foundation that has already been established.

At Osseo Senior High, teachers have been diligent about recruiting and recording AP registrants — demonstrating a 213 percent increase from 2007-08 to 2008-09 in the number of students registered for AP courses. This increase includes higher enrollment of underrepresented minority students. As a result of the grant initiative, there have also been substantial increases in the number of students seeking AP courses.

Maple Grove Senior High has also seen an increase from 2007-08 to 2008-09 in the number of students registered for AP courses. The AP Coordinator at Maple Grove has successfully recruited a larger number of traditionally underrepresented students to AP classes. They saw a more than a 100 percent increase in the number of underrepresented minority students who have either been identified to participate in AP courses or have themselves requested to participate. 

The increase in AP offerings and enrollment has required Maple Grove to add eight additional teachers to the AP program for 2008-09. Maple Grove’s AP Coordinator and CRC supervisor are creating an after-school intervention program called the Action Faction to bolster students’ success in courses, future planning and self-advocacy. 

What started as an initiative for a few schools is now beginning to blossom into a districtwide collaborative effort. For example, vertical alignment in grades five-12 in the English department has gained momentum. Fifth- and sixth-grade English teachers are currently meeting during system Professional Learning Community time to align the different instructional levels for annotation. The foundation has been laid to provide similar opportunities for other
curricular areas.

Click here to see events and workshops in the Midwestern region.