Each year for the past seven years A+ College Ready (A+CR), in partnership with the State Department of Education (ALSDE), selects a group of Alabama high schools to participate in its program to advance college readiness. By applying to be a part of this program, these schools commit to implement highly rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) and pre-AP courses in math, science, and English to better prepare their students for success in college and careers.
So what’s special about Cohort VIII – the group of schools that will join the program this year?
“We’ve experienced such overwhelming success working with our schools over the years,” said Mary Boehm, A+CR president. “The next progression is to take what we’ve learned works well in an AP program – goal setting using student data, intense professional development, more time on task for students, and incentives based on student success – and expand into middle school and 9th and 10th grades.”
As a program that continually encourages teachers and students to raise the bar, tackle the challenge and achieve at higher levels, the A+CR program has raised the bar for itself in its planned work with the newest cohort starting this fall.
With the help of the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, the Alabama Reading Initiative, and a host of excellent grade-level teachers, A+CR infused The National Math and Science Initiative’s Laying the Foundation strategy into year-long courses for 7th – 10th grade core subjects, and put them in the hands of teachers who commit to ongoing, focused professional development aligned to these courses.
“The LTF-infused curriculum for my AP Biology class has helped me to be better organized as a teacher,” said Glen Fox, AP Biology teacher at Albertville High School. “The curriculum is organized to help expose the students to the types of questions they will see on the AP exam. I feel it is a good mix of concepts and practical lab experiences that can help students to think critically.”
The ALSDE/A+CR Program has shown such a substantial “return on investment,” that the Alabama House of Representatives included a recommended $1 million increase in the Education Trust Fund for 2016. The Governor and the State Superintendent also support this increase as it moves through the current legislative session.
“We want to be a part of the A+CR Program because we see the evidence of its benefit and success in other schools in Alabama,” said Deidra Tidwell, Ed.D., Assistant Principal and AP Coordinator for Albertville High School, one of the Cohort VIII schools. “We know that it is going to greatly benefit our students. The support system that the A+CR Program provides encourages us to expose our students to a rigorous, college-ready learning environment. And, we know that this environment will greatly improve their high school education and their transition to and success in college.”
Every year program schools have seen tremendous growth in both the number of students choosing to challenge themselves in AP courses and the number of qualifying scores that the students are earning on the exams. On average, schools experience a 95% growth in AP math, science, and English qualifying scores during their first year in the A+CR Program. The years have also seen the Program expand, supporting over 70,000 AP enrollments throughout the state since inception – and now serving almost half of all local public school systems.
Based on the record-setting success these schools have shown, program leaders believe that a key lever for student success lies with the implementation of rigorous coursework in middle school. This belief was confirmed by a study conducted by ACT, Inc. entitled The Forgotten Middle, which found that the greatest predictor of college readiness among several possible interventions is the level of preparation students have received by the eighth grade.
“Many Alabama students have the potential to achieve at higher academic levels than they realize,” said Boehm. “They deserve the opportunity to be challenged, and our newest Cohort of schools will identify students in earlier grades and enroll them in rigorous courses. A+CR will provide the proven program components they need to succeed.”
The 30 schools that make up Cohort VIII have agreed to place an intensive focus on implementation of the NMSI’s Laying the Foundation-infused courses in 7-10th grade which will prepare far more students for success in AP courses in the final years of high school. Fifteen Program schools will also offer a full complement of AP courses this coming school year and the remaining Pipeline Schools are gearing up to offer AP courses in 2016-17. A+CR and ALSDE commit to these schools the training, support and resources needed to implement the courses successfully.
“We believe, for example, that about half of the 7th and 8th graders in Albertville Middle School are fully capable (based on the 2014 ACT Aspire data) of taking on the more rigorous courses offered through A+CR,” said Teri Thompson, A+CR’s Chief Program Officer. “We now have the data to look more closely at Alabama students who may not typically enroll in more rigorous courses, but probably should.”
In the past, A+CR entered into contractual agreements with the program schools and their AP teachers. This year every teacher in grades 7-10 that agrees to implement LTF-infused curricula will also receive a Letter of Agreement. The teachers make specific commitments such as attending the intensive Laying the Foundation (LTF) training during their summer, participating in additional course-specific training during the year, working collaboratively through vertical team meetings four times per year and “vigorously recruiting students” to enroll in pre-AP and AP courses.
The A+CR commitment is to continue building LTF-infused courses, offer course-specific training, provide stipends for purchasing the equipment and materials needed along with ongoing training and support for teachers and students, and to provide incentives for success.
ACT Aspire will be used as the metric to measure student growth. While there will be goals set for the teachers, the main goal is to have every student progress regardless of their baseline level.
“The objective in focusing on effective LTF implementation is to support every student’s climb, step by step, to gain confidence through achieving academically at higher levels,” said Boehm. “We hope such growth will inspire more and more students to believe they can go to college and succeed. To achieve this, we believe we must keep challenging ourselves to work harder for the sake of developing Alabama’s next generation of leaders, innovators, and engaged citizens.”
