Number taking AP tests rises sharply
New program prompts increase
The number of Advanced Placement tests taken by students in the West Allegheny School District has skyrocketed by 242 percent — from 180 tests last year to 616 this year.
The increase came after the district, making use of a grant, partnered with a not-for-profit college readiness program that provides teachers with additional training and support focused on AP courses, including teachers in grades 6-10, before students take AP classes.
Students who take an AP class and score high enough on an AP test can receive college credit for that course.
“The whole goal is to try to have more students be prepared and access AP courses, which is why we worked so hard with our [grade 6-10] teachers so that kids are developing the confidence and the ability to succeed in an AP course,” West Allegheny superintendent Jerri Lynn Lippert said.
“Of course, if they put the time into the course, we want them to pass the test and get credit, but ultimately the grant is about having kids have the confidence and the access to AP courses that they want to take,” she said.
“What the data shows, and there’s a ton of national data on this, that just exposing kids — it doesn’t even matter if they earn a qualifying score — that just having students experience the rigor of an AP course gives them a significant advantage in college.”
Through the partnership with the National Math and Science Initiative college readiness program, which began this year, West Allegheny received a three-year, $729,128 grant to focus on AP courses in math, science and English.
Preliminary data on the district’s AP test scores for 2016 show that the number of tests earning a score high enough to qualify for college credit in math, science and English rose from 62 in 2015 to 190 in 2016, an increase of 206 percent, which reflects that a larger number of students took AP courses this year than last year.
Among NMSI partner schools after the third year of the initiative, the national average is an increase of 114 percent in qualifying AP scores in math, science and English, said Jaclyn Castma, program manager of NMSI in southwestern Pennsylvania.
“West Allegheny in their first year exceeded our three-year goal,” she said. Mrs. Castma expects the final results to be available in October.
West Allegheny increased the number of AP courses it offers from 15 last year to 18 this year.
In addition to the actual coursework, AP students attended Saturday study sessions and were provided with extra tutoring
The $91 fee for AP tests was split between the grant and the district, so students did not pay anything to take the test. Students who earned a qualifying score were rewarded with $100, Ms. Lippert said.
“I feel like our job as educators is again to make sure that every student — if they want to access an AP course and they are college bound — should have the skills and the confidence to do so. That does not mean 100 percent of West A students are going to be pushed into AP courses, but if they do choose the college bound track versus the career pathway, the bottom line is they should be prepared for it,” Ms. Lippert said.
In addition to West Allegheny, these districts in the region were chosen to receive individualized funding through NMSI last year: Chartiers Valley, Deer Lakes, Peters and three more high schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
For 2016-17, these districts are scheduled to get grants: Penn Hills, Burrell, Central Valley, ChartiersHouston, Kiski Area, McGuffey, Ringold and Trinity Area. Ten more Pennsylvania districts are expected to join the program in 2017-18.
NMSI college readiness programming first came to Pennsylvania in 2013 through a partnership at two high schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools system. Mrs. Castma of Irwin is a former high school teacher at Pittsburgh Brashear, one of the first schools to join the program in Pennsylvania.