The AP Fellows Program: Enhancing Low-Income Urban Students' Participation and Achievement in Advanced Placement Courses

Cuny Graduate School University Center, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

CUNY Graduate School is partnering with the Bronx High School Superintendency of the New York City Board of Education, The College Board, and the New York Academy of Sciences to address the need to increase the participation of low-income and underrepresented minority students in high-school-level Advanced Placement (AP) courses in mathematics and sciences, particularly in urban schools. This will have broad impacts not only for New York City, but also for other urban school districts eager to challenge all of their students. Project activities include: training for GK-12 Fellows in STEM education so that they can play a new role as an AP Fellow; enhancing the abilities of AP teachers of science and mathematics to deliver AP courses to urban students; and developing an exportable model that can be used by other school districts for increasing the successful participation of urban students in AP courses. The Graduate Fellows are assisting 20 new or novice AP teachers of science and mathematics and both are receiving intensive summer and academic-year training and support including College Board Summer Institutes, and workshops on such topics as science and mathematics content, inquiry-based instruction, science and math standards, educational technology as applied to formatting, AP course instruction, and post-secondary programs and career opportunities in STEM. In addition, of intellectual merit, AP teachers and university faculty who teach parallel courses are working together toward improving AP course delivery and articulation with post-secondary settings. This project is partially supported by funds from the Directorate for Engineering from the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. Title of Project: The AP Fellows Program: Enhancing Low-Income Urban Students Participation and Achievement in Advanced Placement Courses Institution: The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York PI/Co-PI: Theodore Brown and Victor S. Strozak, both from CUNY Graduate School Partner School District: Bronx High School Other Partners: The College Board and the New York Academy of Sciences Funding: $1,498,818 # of Fellows/year: 10 AP Graduate Fellows and 20 AP Science and Math Teachers Target Audience: High School Setting: Urban Disciplines: Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Engineering, and Physics