The College Board’s AP Innovation Initiative is an exceptional approach to supporting the educational success of high-need students by enabling states, districts, and schools to supply these students with Advanced Placement® (AP) teachers trained to help the diversifying U.S. student population succeed in rigorous AP coursework. AP Innovation will produce measureable, significant increases in the rates at which high-need students succeed on AP exams, earning scores which research demonstrates are closely linked to improvements in college outcomes for students of all races, ethnicities and income levels. In order to address persistent achievement gaps in AP success rates, AP Innovation will increase AP teacher quality through an innovative system of formative and interim assessments that provides teachers more frequent feedback on student learning, enabling teachers to tailor classroom instruction to their unique student populations; and technology-delivered professional development and online communities targeting the most challenging areas of content, pedagogy and differentiated instruction. The College Board will pilot the AP Innovation system in three districts: Hillsborough County Public Schools (Tampa, FL); Northside Independent School District (San Antonio, TX); and the North East Florida Educational Consortium (NEFEC) and in three subjects: AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, and AP U.S. History. Through its partner school districts, the AP Innovation pilots will serve an estimated 36,780 unique students. Building on the early outcomes of the pilot, the College Board will begin a parallel implementation of AP Innovation nationwide and will reach 186,000 unique students in three additional academic subjects by 2015.
To learn more, contact Elaine Silverstone.
