NGA Reports Success with AP® Expansion Program
A new report by the National Governors Association shows that six states chosen to participate in the Advanced Placement® Expansion project have made great strides toward increasing minority and low-income student participation and success in Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) courses and exams.
Although by 2014 nearly two-thirds of jobs will require at least some college, currently only about 25 percent of students earn a bachelor’s degree within six years. High school students who participate in AP college-level courses and score well on AP Exams are more likely to persist in college and earn a degree.
In 2005, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), in collaboration with the College Board, launched the Advanced Placement Expansion project as part of its initiative to redesign the American high school. Fifty-one pilot high schools in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada and Wisconsin received funding to expand AP courses to allow more minority and low-income students to participate. The NGA Center demonstrated that it is possible for states to increase rigor and get strong results.
In just two years, the number of students in the pilot schools taking AP courses rose 65 percent to 55,000, and the number of minority and low-income students taking AP Exams more than doubled. The percentage of students in the program receiving a score of 3 or higher on an AP Exam increased from 6.6 percent in 2005-06 to 8.3 percent in 2007-08, while the national average only rose from 14.8 percent to 15.2 percent.
The AP Expansion project helped the states achieve strong results by demonstrating ways to expand access to AP courses, build teacher and student capacity, and create incentives for schools and students. In the past, most states have allocated new AP dollars primarily to building teacher capacity. States that took the more comprehensive approach and combined all three strategies — access, capacity and incentives — saw the most prominent effect on AP course enrollment and success. Nationwide, the potential for AP expansion is considerable. Hundreds of thousands of students have the ability, but lack the opportunity, to take and succeed in AP courses.
The NGA Center should set new goals to increase the opportunities for AP, such as having one-third of all high school students take an AP course and one-quarter of them receive a score of 3 or better on an AP Exam. Increasing participation in AP will help raise college graduation rates and help maintain the nation’s workforce quality and economic competitiveness.
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