At the council’s first meeting in March, members — who represent the Indiana Department of Education, two- and four-year colleges, public and private colleges, and public and private secondary schools — set an agenda of topics to discuss at their quarterly meetings. It was decided that each meeting would have an information component about College Board programs like the SAT®, the PSAT/NMSQT®, College Readiness Systems™, Advanced Placement® and many of the advocacy initiatives.

As each program is covered, topics suggested by council members that are related to that program will be discussed as well. For example, the topic of accountability will be discussed along with the PSAT/NMSQT program, including audiences served, implementation of services, measurable outcomes, state DOE funding for 10th-graders, increasing participation, tools and services of the PSAT/NMSQT: My College QuickStart™, AP Potential™ and Summary of
Answers and Skills.

The members of the Indiana Advisory Council are Robert Albano, director for continuous improvement for the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township; Corky Miller-Strong, director of college advising at the Culver Academies; Linda J. Christy, school counselor at Avon High School; Karen Morris, AP project manager at the University of Notre Dame; Carroll Easterday, senior educational manager at the College Board’s Indiana office; Sue Reynolds, executive director at the Indiana Student Achievement Institute; Matt Fleck, assistant director of student services at the Indiana Department of Education; Jeff Rickey, dean of admissions and financial aid at Earlham College in Bloomington; William Gulde, curriculum coordinator at North Central High School in Indianapolis; Roger Thompson, vice provost for enrollment management at Indiana University; Joan Jacobs, school counselor at Eastwood Middle School in Indianapolis;
and Velma Wade, associate director of admissions at Ivy Tech Community College’s
Lawrence Campus.

Easterday serves as the council’s administrator. The council’s next meeting will be in June.
               

VP Ileana Rodriguez

As we welcome spring, our thoughts turn not only to warmer weather but also to the end of the academic year, continued celebration of excellence and plans for the future.

In the Midwestern Region, we are honored to celebrate excellence in education with the national recognition of Janice Crowley, AP® Chemistry teacher at Wichita Collegiate School in Wichita, Kansas. She was named the Siemens National AP Teacher of the Year. Ms. Crowley has won several awards and grants for her innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Her work as recognized through this award affirms the importance of creativity and rigor in the classroom.

In early February, The Ohio State University, Columbus City Schools and the nonprofit organization I Know I Can partnered with the College Board to offer a college-planning program for high school juniors who have taken the PSAT/NMSQT®. Approximately 400 students from Columbus’ 20 public high schools attended this program hosted by Ohio State. They learned more about the college-planning process, financial aid and scholarships, how to best prepare for the SAT® and navigating collegeboard.com. This program is in its sixth year and continues to reach more college-bound juniors and create opportunities to connect more students to college success and opportunity.

Almost 950 AP® teachers from across the region attended professional development workshops hosted at Triton College in March, making it the largest public AP workshop in the Midwest. AP teachers from major subject areas had the opportunity to exchange ideas with their peers and learn additional strategies to help more students achieve college success.

I would like to thank all who attended the Midwestern Regional Forum in February, with a special thanks to the Program Planning Committee for putting together a great program. This year was a big success, marked by our high attendance of 520 registrants despite an economic crisis that has subjected our institutions to significant budget cuts and travel restrictions.

We appreciate and encourage your participation at College Board events and programs and look forward to our continued work together as we near the end of the academic year.

For at least a decade, Indiana’s Department of Education has paid for every junior across the state to take the PSAT/NMSQT®, and, in recent years, the state has financed the exam for every sophomore and junior. Allowing every student in the state to take the PSAT/NMSQT means that many more capable students will be identified for enrollment in AP® courses. Indiana’s state superintendent of public instruction, Tony Bennett, has issued a bold challenge to have 25 percent of all high school students graduate with at least one score of 3, 4 or 5 on an AP Exam.

In light of the superintendent’s challenge, the College Board wanted to be certain that counselors, administrators and teachers were getting the most out of their state’s investment. The PSAT/NMSQT program offers a suite of tools, data and services to help nourish a student’s potential, but many educators simply haven’t had or taken the time to explore them, so workshops were developed to explore the many tools available that supplement score reports.

Carroll Easterday, senior educational manager of K-12 Services at the College Board’s Indiana office, led 10 workshops in seven weeks, giving more than 60 participants an opportunity to learn about these tools and receive hands-on training that they could take back to their classrooms and offices. Easterday showed them how they could use programs like My College QuickStart™, Online Score Report, College MatchMaker, MyRoad™ and AP Potential™, and downloads like Destination College to maximize their use of the PSAT/NMSQT program.

As a former educator, Easterday knows all too well how difficult it can be for educators to be out of their offices for even a day to attend a workshop, however valuable. She designed the workshops to be only three hours long and offered them in 10 locations across the state, so participants could easily drive over and back in one day and avoid the cost of a hotel. She asked schools and universities across the state to use their computer labs, so that the workshops could be offered free of charge.

The workshops were a rousing success. Most attendees confessed that they’d had no idea of all that had been available to them beyond the PSAT/NMSQT Score Reports, particularly how personalized the information was for each student. One participant talked about a gifted student who was pregnant and had been told she “wasn’t college material.” No one in her family had ever gone to college, and she didn’t believe she would go, either. She hoped that, by taking this girl a piece of paper containing objective information about her abilities, she could convince her to take a chance and enroll in AP courses. Many said that they’d like Easterday to come back to their schools or communities to do workshops, especially more on AP Potential. Easterday has already planned several follow-up sessions in the next two months.

To learn more about the Indiana PSAT/NMSQT Educator Workshops, please visit the workshop Web site.

The College Board’s Midwestern Regional Office congratulates Janice Crowley, an AP® Chemistry teacher at Wichita Collegiate School in Wichita, Kan., for being selected as the 2009 Siemens AP Teacher of the Year.

The Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement is a $300,000 annual commitment of support for the efforts of students, teachers and high schools that excel in STEM-related Advanced Placement® initiatives across the nation. Each year, one teacher from each state with a minimum of five years of teaching experience in math, science or technology AP courses is recognized for their exemplary teaching and enthusiastic dedication to students and the AP Program. One of these teachers is chosen as the AP Teacher of the Year and receives a $5,000 award.

“We are very pleased to partner with the Siemens Foundation to recognize the success of these AP science and math students, and the teachers and the high schools that have fostered student success,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton. “Performing well on an AP Exam is more than just the completion of a rigorous course; it is the bridge to college success. The U.S. needs to train a new generation of scientists and mathematicians. Siemens Award winners are leading the way.”

Attendees at the Midwestern Regional Forum rated their interactions with colleagues from across the region highest in importance in an informal survey of participants.

The surveys were distributed at College Board President Gaston Caperton’s plenary sessions at each forum and were designed to collect feedback about the forums, particularly in today’s difficult economic climate. More than 150 people at the Midwestern Regional Forum completed
the survey.

“It is affirming to see how much our members value the forums and in-person meetings,” said Mary Carroll Scott, vice president of membership. “The question for us is, how do we accomplish that effective communication and professional development in difficult economic times, when it’s all the more important to share ideas.”

Nationwide, attendance at the regional forums was down from 2008, with many people saying the economy was hindering opportunities to travel and attend professional development programs. Despite the economic environment, the number of people in attendance at the 2009 Midwestern Regional Forum was about equal to the number who attended in 2008.

Midwestern participants also agreed in large numbers that the quality of the regional forum presentations is high and that they use the information to improve their work.

In related research conducted through an e-mail survey, almost two-thirds of respondents indicated that the workshops and sessions are what primarily draw them to the regional forums. About one-fourth said interaction with colleagues is the primary reason they attend.

The closing session with keynote speaker Juan Williams was particularly popular, with 96 percent of respondents saying they were satisfied or very satisfied by it.

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