Advanced Placement (AP)

"Preparing for college and work requires taking the right courses." - Crisis at the Core, 2004
Expanding access to Advanced Placement (AP) college-level courses is one of five goals in the Blueprint for Action - the action plan for delivering on the New Wisconsin Promise. The ultimate goal of the New Wisconsin Promise is to close the achievement gap that exists among students based on ethnicity and income.

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Awarded 3 Year Advanced Placement Incentive Program Grant

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has been awarded a three year $2.2 million federal Advanced Placement Incentive Program grant. It will support efforts to encourage more students to participate in the Advanced Placement program, especially those from low-income families. The project, entitled Blended Learning Innovations: Building a Pipeline for Equity and Access, targets 19 high schools and 27 middle schools, impacting about 26,600 students. Schools are located in three cooperative educational service agencies (CESAs) and the Madison Metropolitan School District. CESA 7 is headquartered in Green Bay, CESA 9 is headquartered in Tomahawk, and CESA 11 is headquartered in Turtle Lake. Poverty rates in participating districts range from 40 percent to 83 percent. The grant will use a multipronged approach for Advanced Placement courses. A complete press release about the grant is available here. Additional information can be obtained from Chrys Mursky, Consultant, Gifted/Talented and Advanced Placement, at 608-267-9273 or Chrys Mursky.

Professional Development Opportunities for Advanced Placement

The College Board will host three professional development opportunities for Advanced Placement in Wisconsin this fall and winter. The first will be held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on November 19, 2009. It will feature one-day workshops for AP Calculus AB and BC, English Language and Composition, English Literature and Composition, U.S. Government and Politics, Spanish Language and Literature, and U.S. History. One-day workshops will also be offered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on December 1, 2009. This event will feature AP Biology, Calculus AB and BC, Chemistry, English Language and Composition, English Literature and Composition, Comparative and U.S. Government and Politics (combined session), Physics B, Physics C: Mechanics, Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, Psychology, and U.S. History. To register for these workshops, click here. Finally, on October 1, 2009, the College Board will offer a fall counselor workshop at Marquette University. Click here for more information on this event.

Summer Institute Gives Students a Jump Start on AP

They could have spent the sultry dog days of August 2007 at the beach or engrossed in videogame marathons. Instead, 22 students from Madison's LaFollette High School spent a week in the Advanced Placement (AP) European History Summer Institute. Victoria Straughn who has taught AP European History at LaFollette for seven years designed and taught the five-day class. She says the AP course is more difficult than most courses students will encounter in high school. Her aim was to help students learn some fundamentals ahead of time. "It seemed like a great opportunity to teach students many of the skills they need to develop so quickly once the course is underway. It also allowed me to form a stronger working relationship with students in a more relaxed setting than the four-block system typically allows."

Straughn designed this summer course to be flexible for students so they could work around family, job, and sports obligations. Some students attended mornings or afternoons only, while some attended full days all week. Student Liz Beaty, a junior, said, "It was taught like a college class. You could come to class when it worked for you. You could leave when you needed to. The responsibility was on you." Typically those who attended in the morning were given hands on assignments in the afternoon while newcomers were briefed on the morning activities. Then both morning and afternoon groups were introduced to new materials and skills. Most of the students who took advantage of the Summer Institute had not taken an AP class previously. Morning sessions ran from 9 a.m. till noon and afternoons from 1-4 p.m. Activities frequently required working with a partner or in a small group. Bobbi Soukup, a junior, described how they took notes in mock lectures and shared the key points with each other: "That way," she said, "You knew if you had missed something yourself."

What attracted students to the Summer Institute? Some of them knew Ms. Straughn from taking other courses from her. Samantha Tadych, a junior, said, "AP is a scary word. Especially if you want to be in sports and plays and other extra curricular activities--it's a challenge. I wouldn't say I'm stellar academically, so I attended to stay on top of things." Kaley Stroup, junior, said, "I wanted to get my feet wet before the class. I had no idea what to expect. This was my first AP class. It shocked me to know how much we would have to work, but I knew she (Straughn) was going to be there in the summer to help." She added, "I also learned that you have to follow the syllabus!"

Other students described what they gained through the Summer Institute. Liz Beaty said the experience gave her a sense of what a college class is like. Junior Kate Feuling said it helped her realize the importance of organizing her time before the AP class began. "You have to set aside time to study," she said, "and plan how you are going to use your time." Kirsten Webster, junior, echoed the importance of time management with an AP course. "I learned not to put off doing the work. If you do put it off, it gets very stressful." Lorena Zarate, junior, said the class gave her a head start on note taking. "I learned the Cornell method and that's what I use the most now." Junior Cristina Lor said that there were lots of self-tests and quizzes in the Summer Institute. "We knew how we were doing because of that," she observed. "Also taking the sample AP test made it much less scary."

Students say the group stayed connected in spite of the time gap between the Summer Institute and second semester when the course began (LaFollette runs on a block schedule). Lorena Zarate said, "I am doing better in this class because I was prepared. We are so lucky we had this." Heroina Kastrati, a senior, who was in the AP European History course did not attend the Institute last summer. Her comment: "I wish I would have taken it."

The AP European History Summer Institute was funded through the AP Expansion Grant from the National Governor's Association which was administered by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Webinar: "Predicting Your Students' Advanced Placement (AP) Success"

Recently Kathleen Paris hosted Abby Walls, Wisconsin's College Board liaison, in a webinar about how the AP Potential tool can help target students who are likely to succeed in Advanced Placement courses. Many students who have the potential to take AP classes "fly under the radar." AP Potential can assist in finding these students so that they can be encouraged to enroll. AP Potential predictive data is generated from student scores on the Preliminary SAT Scoring Service (PSSS) exam which students can take as early as 8th grade. What You Will Learn in the Webcast: 1) The significance of early planning for AP coursework, starting in middle school; 2) How the PSSS exam can be used to predict AP success using the AP Potential tool; 3) When and how the PSSS should be administered; 4) What student information you will receive through AP Potential; 5) How the PSSS exam results can be used for high school and postsecondary planning; and 6) Why AP opportunities are important for students and the curriculum overall. Click here to access the archived version of the webinar.

Promoting Student Success with Vertical Teams

In 2006, the National Governors Association (NGA) awarded the Office of the Governor and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction a $500,000 two-year grant to expand Advanced Placement in selected pilot schools. Nine partner school districts, Benton, Cashton, DeSoto, Ithaca, Madison Metropolitan, Pecatonica, Platteville, River Valley, and Viroqua, as well as The College Board, CESAs 3, 4, and 9, the Wisconsin Academy Staff Development Initiative (WASDI), and UW-Madison’s Center on Education and Work (CEW) participated in the grant activities which focused on:

• Increasing the number of Advanced Placement (AP) courses offered.
• Training teachers, counselors, and administrators to offer and support AP courses.
• Increasing the number of students enrolled in AP, especially those from traditionally under-represented groups.

A key strategy in furthering these goals was the creation of vertical teams. Vertical teams most commonly consist of middle school and high school educators who teach in the same academic area. However, they may also include elementary teachers, school counselors, administrators, department chairs, or curriculum specialists. The concept of vertical teams is based on a philosophy of inclusion; on the notion that all students benefit from experiencing a rich and rigorous curriculum. The aim is to provide students with the concepts, skills, and habits of mind which will allow them to engage in demanding coursework. These tools, however, are not developed in a single, isolated course, but rather are cultivated over a period of several years. Vertical teams design a coherent sequence of learning that builds with increasing depth and complexity from middle school through high school to increase achievement and success for all students.

With support from the NGA grant, the nine partner schools established vertical teams, initially in science and math, to examine district curriculum. Members of these teams offer advice for others who are considering this approach. Dan Roberts, a mathematics teacher at Pecatonica points out the importance of scaffolding skills. “You’ve got to start early – you can’t just tell a sophomore, ‘You should take calculus next year.’ We want to be sure the students get the prerequisite skills earlier for the higher level math.” DeSoto science teacher, Karla Walker, adds, “Our curriculum team took the approach of ‘spiraling’ and asked, ‘Where can we go shallower with content and where do we need to go deeper?’ The impact was felt even in the elementary curriculum.”

These types of questions resulted in identifying gaps and overlaps. Wanda Esch, a mathematics teacher in the River Valley School District says, “I’m sure our eyes popped when we found out that the middle school math curriculum introduces slope in seventh grade. Knowing this, we realized we could go deeper into statistics with students in high school. Before this, we’d never gotten that far.” The science vertical team from Ithaca identified and eliminated significant redundancies - so many that they literally created an additional quarter of learning for students. “We found enough overlaps in the scope and sequence of our curriculum,” shares science teacher Emmie Kirchner, “that middle school teacher, Chris Willis, will have a whole quarter to teach anatomy for the first time.”

In addition to preparing students for success in rigorous coursework and connecting curriculum across grade levels, vertical teams encourage coordination and communication among staff. Randy Eide, chair of the Madison East High School science department, describes East’s approach as horizontal as well as vertical. “Within East, we are hoping to standardize our approach to graphing. Our goal is that all the mathematics and science teachers will use common language relative to graphing in all classes so kids hear a consistent message and vocabulary so learning is reinforced.” Science teachers at East have also met with teachers from the three feeder middle schools. “It’s astounding to realize how little we know about what they teach and vice versa,” notes Eide. Alesha Yahr, a member of Madison Memorial’s mathematics vertical team, echoes this sentiment. “We got some surprises when we found out how much the middle school teachers were covering with the students. When you actually see what is being taught, it ends the blame game.”

The positive effects of the vertical team approach is summed up by Phil Manske, “This project has been very beneficial to River Valley High School, and specifically to our math department. It has matured our staff and given them vision. This is one of the best things that I have been a part of in my 25 years of teaching.” The vertical teams supported by the NGA grant are one of the lasting outcomes of the project. Many of the partner schools have expanded beyond the science and math teams they originally established and added teams in English/language arts, social studies, and world languages. Districts across the state who were not part of the pilot project have adopted this approach to promote equity and excellence. If you are interested in more information about vertical teams and how they can benefit your district, please contact Chrystyna Mursky, Consultant for Gifted & Talented and Advanced Placement at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Her phone is 608-267-9273 or click here to e-mail Chrys.

For questions about this information, contact Chrystyna V. Mursky (608) 267-9273

Last updated on 7/9/2009 1:36:13 PM