Polk County Receives College Board’s 2011 AP® District of the Year Award

Dec. 2011

Programs and Services

Polk County Public Schools (PCPS), in central Florida, was honored with the College Board’s 2011 Advanced Placement® Equity and Excellence District of the Year. PCPS is the nation’s leader, among large school districts, in simultaneously expanding access to the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) courses and improving AP Exam performance. Polk County has the added distinction of achieving the largest increase of any school district in the country in the number of traditionally underrepresented minority students earning a score of 3 or better on at least one AP Exam. Polk County students, teachers, district and school administrators as well as College Board executives celebrated these achievements during a two-day AP Summit — held on Dec.12 and –13 — during which they discussed strategies to further enhance the AP Program and prepare even more students for success in college and the global workforce.

Between 2009 and 2011, Polk County Public Schools was able to:

• Increase student participation in AP by 19 percent — from 3,365 to 4,802 students — without any decreases in the rate at which students earned scores of 3 or higher.
• Increase the representation of traditionally underserved minority students (African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native) participating in the AP Program from 28 percent to 31 percent of the total AP student population.

"Our teachers have worked tirelessly to increase rigor in their classes and to coach and support students who had never experienced an AP course before," said Sherrie B. Nickell, superintendent of Polk County Public Schools. "We intentionally sought out capable students (including those from underrepresented populations) for this initiative. We knew there were many with great potential who had not yet been stretched academically to meet the demands of the challenging AP course work."

Much of Polk’s success can be attributed to the introduction of a rigorous curriculum in its middle schools and high schools. In 2010, Polk County started using SpringBoard^® English Language Arts and Mathematics to teach critical thinking and problem-solving skills in grades six through eight. Polk instituted SpringBoard in its secondary school program this past fall — where SpringBoard is now utilized by 15 of 39 high schools. The district plans to expand the program to all high schools in the near future.

Polk County Public Schools was one of three districts selected from the 2nd Annual AP Honor Roll to receive the College Board 2011 Advanced Placement Equity and Excellence District of the Year Award. The other two winning districts — one medium-sized district and one small district — will be announced soon. All three winning districts will be honored again at a celebratory plenary session at the AP Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla., on July 20, 2012.