Many schools and districts administer ACT® Aspire® to measure progress towards college and career readiness. A recent study suggests that ACT Aspire scores can also be used to help identify students who are academically prepared and may benefit from some of the more rigorous courses offered in high schools across the nation, including Advanced…

The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is a biennial survey required by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights since 1968. This survey collects data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools. Using CRDC data, this fact sheet explores and presents the following data for English learner (EL)…

This report presents Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance results in Texas public schools for the 2022-23 school year. Data are provided by student characteristics, including race/ethnicity; gender; and economic, at-risk, dyslexia, Emergent bilingual student/English learner, foster…

This report presents information about the Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, including information about courses, examinations, and examination fees. The report also discusses the Texas AP Incentive Program, Texas policy related to uses of AP and IB examination results, and data sources and methodological…

This report presents Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance results in Texas public schools for the 2021-22 school year. Data are provided by student characteristics, including race/ethnicity; gender; and economic, at-risk, dyslexia, Emergent bilingual student/English learner, foster…

When the author's school received the exciting news that they had moved from 714 to 752 on the Advanced Placement Incentive (API), the school staff were shocked, elated and paralyzed with fear. The author's conviction is that this is what fueled their API increase this year--the dedication of time to the discussion and dialogue about…

This report presents Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance results in Texas public schools for the 2019-20 school year. Data are provided by student characteristics, including race/ethnicity; gender; and economic, at-risk, dyslexia, English learner, foster care, homeless, immigrant,…

This report presents Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance results in Texas public schools for the 2018-19 school year. Data are provided by student characteristics, including race/ethnicity; gender; and economic, at-risk, dyslexia, English learner, foster care, homeless, immigrant,…

As every good secondary administrator knows, rigorous curricula matter. Challenging curricula is the factor in lifting each student to reach their potential: "the academic intensity of the student's high school curriculum still counts more than anything else...in providing momentum toward completing a bachelor's degree" (Adelman, 2006,…

This report presents Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance results in Texas public schools for the 2017-18 school year. Data are provided by student characteristics, including race/ethnicity; gender; and economic, at-risk, dyslexia, English learner, foster care, homeless, immigrant,…

Geography may not be particularly known as a hot topic among today's students--even some advocates suggest it suffers from an image problem--but by at least one measure, the subject is starting to come into its own. Across more than 30 topics covered in the Advanced Placement (AP) program, participation in geography is rising faster than any…

Have efforts to improve schools neglected high achievers? A growing chorus of critics is voicing concern for the achievement gap, but not the gap between well-to-do and poor students, or white and non-white students. The gap that most worries them is the one between U.S. students and students in other industrialized nations. Among the 34 nations…

In 2002, the Stark County Preschool through College (P-16) Compact set the goal of achieving an 80% college going rate. Such a goal seemed both audacious and daunting for a community where in 2001 only 17.9% of the adults held a Bachelor's Degree, or higher, and where only 49% of all high school graduates went directly to college. Nine years have…

Many policymakers and education leaders have embraced the Advanced Placement (AP) Program as a tool to strengthen the high school curriculum and prepare students for college. The popularity of the AP program among these policy leaders reflects their belief that the traditional high school curriculum has often failed to provide rigorous courses…

At a time of mushrooming interest in Advanced Placement (AP) tests, a new book, "AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program," assembles studies on how capable the program is of meeting the increasingly diverse expectations held up for it. Growing out of a symposium held at Harvard in 2007, the book focuses on AP science…