A Note from Western Region VP Al Mijares

Jan. 2010

Western News

VP Al Mijares

It was my pleasure to visit with leaders from the state offices of education for Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington over the past few weeks to share the results of The 6th Annual AP® Report to the Nation. We also had the opportunity to provide data and analyses to the state higher education offices in Washington and Oregon.

We were pleased to report that four states in our region bettered the national percentage of students in the class of 2009, receiving a score of 3 or higher on at least one AP Exam during high school. California had 20.8 percent; Colorado, 20.1 percent; Utah, 18.5 percent; and Washington, 16 percent. The national average was 15.9 percent.

Other highlights from our discussions included Nevada’s participation in the National Governors Association Advanced Placement® Expansion project, which provides funds to 51 schools in six states to expand AP course access for minority and low-income students. In two years, the number of students in Nevada at participating schools taking AP courses rose 134 percent, and the number of minority and low-income students taking AP Exams more than doubled.

We were thrilled to see that California’s Calexico High School is one of 15 exemplary schools cited in the report for having the largest numbers of African American and Latino students experiencing success in individual subjects.

Calexico Principal Gilbert Barraza congratulated AP Spanish teachers Yolanda Cota and Ana Montes, saying, “the Calexico Unified School District faculty and staff have created and sustained a college-going initiative dedicated to maximizing our students' potential. Ninety-eight percent of Calexico Unified School District [students] enter kindergarten with little or no English, and 88 percent of them are economically disadvantaged.” Barraza went on to say that more than three-fourths of the students have limited English proficiency and are classified as English language learners. “Calexico High School has been [home to] 12 Gates Millennium Scholars over the last four years,” he added, “and has averaged an 82 percent college-going rate to two- and four-year institutions such as UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Riverside and Stanford.” We are very proud that AP has played a role in the success of these students.

We salute all the excellent teachers, such as AP Chemistry teacher Sheryl Fontaine of Reed High School in Sparks, Nev., and AP Spanish teacher Steven Crawford of Bellevue High School in Bellevue, Wash., who were featured in the College Board’s recent report, “ Teachers Are the Center of Education.” We are grateful for the powerful impact they make on their students every day.

Educators and administrators in our region deserve great credit for the progress they have achieved in helping students from a wide variety of backgrounds gain access to and be successful in college-level course work. We thank you.