As a critical step in understanding the impacts of IB, the analyses presented in this report examined the selection mechanisms behind IB participation across Florida, the state with the second highest representation of IB programs in the nation. We use longitudinal student and school-level data from 1995 through 2009 from the Florida K-20…

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP), created in the field of international schools in the late 1960s, has made considerable in-roads into publicly-funded schooling in many educational jurisdictions of the Anglo-West. Although the IBDP did not enter into the Ontario public system until 1991, there are now forty-four (and growing)…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of selected Advanced Placement (AP) programs on the academic performance and college readiness of high school students. Specifically, the researcher was concerned with ascertaining the effectiveness of social science, math, science, English, music/art and language AP programs on the…

What can be learned from the college transcripts of beginning postsecondary students who first enrolled in the 2003-04 academic year and were followed over a 6-year period ending in 2009? The Web Tables presented in this report provide an overview of classes taken and credits earned by a nationwide sample of first-time beginning postsecondary…

The Advanced Placement (AP) program is an educational program that permits high school students to take introductory college-level courses and receive college credit by passing a standardized end-of-course exam. Data were obtained from a statewide database of 2 high school graduating cohorts (N = 90,044). We used a series of propensity score…

"Seizing the Future: How Ohio's Career and Technical Education Programs Fuse Academic Rigor and Real-World Experiences to Prepare Students for College and Work," demonstrates Ohio's progress in developing strong policies for career and technical education (CTE) programs to promote rigor, including college- and career-ready graduation…

Educators are increasingly focused on ensuring that students experience a rigorous curriculum in high school and graduate college and career ready. One way of introducing rigorous course work is to have students take college-level work, often in the form of either an AP® course and exam or a dual enrollment course. This study compared the outcomes…

The continuing emphasis by Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools (MCPS) on rigorous course taking resulted in MCPS students taking a record-setting 33,662 Advanced Placement (AP) exams in 2014. Additionally, the percentage of AP exams taken by MCPS students who attained scores of 3 or higher (73.9 percent) was 13.0 and 16.7 percentage points…

Bernstein (1999, 2000) proposes that contrasting educational discourses construct contrasting retrospective, prospective, decentred (market) and decentred (therapeutic) pedagogic identities. In different times and geographical locations the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) has been projected onto a variety of pedagogic…

School districts across the U.S. are experimenting with various reforms in an attempt to bridge the gap between secondary and postsecondary education and create greater access to postsecondary education for all students. One such reform initiative is the Early College High School (ECHS) model, which allows high school students to earn a diploma…

The current study examined the role of AP® Exam participation and performance on four-year college graduation in four years. Because students who take AP Exams can earn college credit while still in high school, it was expected that AP students would have higher four-year graduation rates. Moreover, it was expected that AP students who earned…

The purpose of this study was to examine the attrition rate of the African American high school student enrolled in advanced academics by looking at the effects of specific quantifiable variables on state-trait anxiety scores. More specifically, this study was concerned with the influence of demographic and school related factors on the…

In the fall of 2008, the authors contacted a representative sample of over 3,600 high schools in the U.S., both public and private, to determine whether or not physics was taught there. The authors received responses from over 99% of the schools. For the schools which indicated they were offering physics, they obtained contact information for the…

This Research Brief summarizes the performance of M-DCPS students participating in the International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) programs. Outcome data are provided for the eight M-DCPS schools offering the two programs and corresponding examinations. Participation in international…

The number of schools offering the programmes of the International Baccalaureate (IB) hit 3000 in July 2010. Since 2004 the IB has aimed for further growth within a "wider access" and "greater impact" paradigm. A "further" 7000 schools are expected to be involved by 2020. However, there is now considerable concern about growth, especially within…