Research indicates that students from marginalized communities do not have the same access to advanced courses as the rest of the population, creating a persistent disparity (Edmunds et al., 2022; Ezzani et al., 2021; Sebastian, 2021). One reason for the equity gap is the existing enrollment process tends to miss qualified students, specifically…

This study explores the direction and magnitude of racial disparities on three advanced placement (AP) computer science (CS) exams, namely AP CS Principles, AP CS A, and AP CS AB, based on the test scores of more than one million students who have taken AP CS exams between 1997 and 2020. Using Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope procedures we found…

Personalized assessments are of increasing interest because of their potential to lead to more equitable decisions about the examinees. However, one obstacle to the widespread use of personalized assessments is the lack of a measurement toolkit that can be used to analyze data from these assessments. This article takes one step toward building…

This memorandum provides information pertinent to the participation and performance of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations for 2023 graduates in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In 2023, 59.3% of MCPS graduates took one or more AP exams; 17.3 percentage points more than graduates in Maryland and 24.6…

This paper traces cosmopolitan nationalism (CN) in educative global action. By studying two International Baccalaureate (IB) school approaches to student agency, I pinpoint CN signifiers and analyze them through Papastephanou's (2023) stereoscopic justice and Foucault's (2002) critique of superficial knowledge systems. The analysis reveals CN as a…

The expansion and increasing popularity of Advanced Placement (AP) programs have led to a new and significant trend: students are taking AP courses earlier in their high school journey, with a notable increase in enrollment among freshmen and sophomores. This study examines the effects of early engagement in AP courses for students deemed…

To evaluate how Advanced Placement (AP) courses affect college-going, we randomly assigned the offer of enrollment into an AP science course to over 1,800 students in twenty-three schools that had not previously offered the course. We find no AP course effects on students' college entrance exam scores (SAT/ACT). As expected, AP course-takers are…

This memorandum provides information pertinent to the participation and performance of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations for 2022 graduates in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In 2022, 63.2% of MCPS graduates took one or more AP exams--21.9 percentage points more than public school graduates in…

Dual enrollment (DuE) is an opportunity for high school students to take college-level courses. Participation in dual enrollment allows students to earn high school and college credit simultaneously; thus, decreasing students' time to complete a college degree and saving them tuition costs. Other questions answered in the guide include: (1) How…

This dissertation was designed to provide positive perspectives regarding recruitment and retention practices in an urban school district. Recruiting and retaining African American teachers for Advanced Placement (AP) courses is a vital educational issue in the U. S. The number of African American teachers teaching AP courses was low.A…

This memorandum provides information on Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course enrollment, exam participation, and exam performance during the 2023-2024 school year. During the 2023-2024 school year, 136 AP or IB courses were offered across high schools. Among the 25 comprehensive high schools, all offered AP courses,…

Participation in accelerated learning programs (defined in this study as Advanced Placement, Dual Enrollment, and International Baccalaureate) continues to expand across the US. As such, it is important to better our understanding of the relationship among these three programs concerning measures of student postsecondary achievement. Prior…

Data at the national, state, and local levels all indicate disproportionately low enrollment of Black/African American students in Advanced Placement (AP) classes at the high school level. Black/African American students are missing out on educational opportunities and access to an equitable education by not participating in AP classes in high…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate disproportionality with respect to Advanced Placement (AP) opportunities for students of color, post qualification, for special education services via the label Specific Learning Disability (SLD). Multiple data sources including existing data, surveys, and semi structured interviews were…

For Massive Open Online Courses to have trustworthy credentials, assessments in these courses must be valid, reliable, and fair. Item Response Theory provides a robust approach to evaluating these properties. However, for this theory to be applicable, certain properties of the assessment items should be met, among them that item difficulties are…