The Equity and Access Colloquium is now part of the AP® Annual Conference!
This preconference will provide training for administrators and teachers in concrete strategies for encouraging student awareness and enrollment, improving student performance, and building the capacity of school educators to develop and sustain rigorous and nurturing school environments for underserved students. This special preconference colloquium will include plenary speakers and a choice of eight equity and access sessions.
Schedule of Events
Participants will examine the Broad Foundation toolkit describing strategies that districts around the country have taken to expand AP access and the results they have achieved. In addition, the toolkit outlines sources of possible funding that can be tapped to pay for the various aspects of these expanded programs. The session will involve a brief overview of the materials available, a case study of the approach that one school district in Texas has taken (Pflugerville ISD), and a brainstorming session about approaches to AP expansion that may be applicable to their own school systems.
Bridgeport High School provides a model for how to successfully increase expectations and rigor in a rural, high-poverty and high-minority population. This increase in rigor and expectations, and an emphasis on academic planning, has cultivated an atmosphere where college is an expectation beyond the high school diploma. Participants will learn how to develop successful college-in-the-high-school programs which are enhanced by a strong AP program. Students enroll in college academic courses in the high school after successfully passing local community college entrance exams. The broad AP program is open enrollment, and all students willing to take the challenge are enrolled in the courses. Bridgeport has worked to expand its efforts to perpetuate the transition from high school graduation to college by implementing AVID at the middle and high school levels, encouraging alumni presentations, and by providing visits from college representatives. Because of Bridgeport’s success, it has earned the National Title I Distinguished School Award in 2005, the U.S. News & World Report Bronze award in both 2007 & 2008, the 2009 Magna Grand Prize Award for school districts of fewer than 5,000 students, and the 2009 Washington Achievement Award for Overall Excellence.
In this workshop school administrators and teachers will explore and share perspectives relevant to the environment, attitude and practices that define a college-going culture. The focus will be on how school leadership can strategically influence the experience of their students at school, in a manner consistent with transforming their experience at home and community—utilizing methods that consistently support: a) students being interested and aware, as early as elementary school, of career and college options from a global perspective b) the school’s expectation that all students can be prepared to attend college and c) a consistent message of high expectations for the student’s future.
This session will allow participants to set reasonable yet ambitious AP goals for their entire student population. We will look at data and practices from the schools in the country that are producing the best AP results, as well as how to set goals if you are brand new to a school or a district.
Still struggling with how to get diverse students enrolled in AP classes? This session will outline how a large urban high school is working to break down barriers to rigorous coursework and college readiness by not allowing students to opt out of AP classes; there is no other option for certain courses. Participants will examine the underlying culture and belief systems that must be addressed to take on such a challenge, including how to cope with stakeholder “push-back.” Victories, challenges and strategies for success with this initiative will be shared, and participants will apply the model to their own educational settings. Emphasis will be on the culture shift that must happen to obtain buy-in to such an approach, and tools will be shared for Systems Change Agents to take and use in their own circumstances.
What can administrators do to increase AP enrollment and success for students of color? After the students are enrolled, how do you provide them with the academic supports that they may need to be successful? How do you monitor student progress? In this interactive session, hear how one administrative team has dramatically increased AP enrollment for students of color by creating supports during the school day, funding a summer camp for first time takers of AP, and developing monitoring tools to track progress. Attendees will develop an Action Plan for their AP program for the upcoming school year, and have real take-away strategies that they can use to prepare students of color for the rigors of AP courses.
Our student ambassadors serve as the face of our AP program and make presentations to middle school and parent groups in order to diversify enrollment in our AP classes. In this session, we will share skits, activities and strategies to give students greater access to rigorous coursework.
Columbus City Schools in Columbus, Ohio offers several district-wide initiatives to promote equity and access. The district pays for all tenth and eleventh grade students to take the PSAT test on the Wednesday before the Saturday administration. The district believes strongly in an open enrollment policy regarding students taking AP courses without restrictions. The district offers an AP Summer Boot Camp which is a weeklong summer academic camp for AP preparation and offers an AP Winter Institute tutoring session for six to eight Saturday’s in the winter. To prepare students for the AP Calculus exam, there is a calculus tournament two weeks before the exam. The district pays for AP exams for every student enrolled in an AP course and provides all new AP teachers with weeklong professional development at the AP Summer Institutes.
