A+ College Ready congratulates its  nine program schools that ranked among Alabama’s top 20 Best high schools on the US News and World Report.  A three-step process determined the Best High Schools in this ranking. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all of their students well, using performance on state proficiency tests as the benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work using AP and IB test data as the benchmark.

See the full list at:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings Read More...

Alabama Voices: MLK would have been AP student
January 14, 2012
 
By Caroline Novak
 
In just a few days, children across the country will celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Dr. King’s “March on Washington” nearly fifty years ago under the theme of “jobs and freedom” signified an important step in the long uphill climb for minority students, toward freedom through education.  As U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, "Freedom is the ability to think and to pursue your own path—and only education can give you that freedom."
 
This year there are 4,000 African-American students in Alabama who are now able to take the path toward freedom by enrolling in rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) courses. 
 
In the early years of Advanced Placement, participants were largely male and primarily students from private prep schools and elite public schools. And no wonder, the idea for the program emerged from elite colleges, prep schools, and high schools as a way of accelerating and fortifying the education of the nation’s future leaders in anticipation of Cold War national-security demands.
 
But no longer are we, as a nation, underestimating the intellectual capacity and commitment to success of students from far less-privileged upbringings.  We have learned our lesson through leaders like Dr. King, who was such a precocious student he skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered Morehouse Collegeat age fifteen.
 
We are surrounded by other examples from today’s generation of students, such as Rudy Davis, a sophomore at Auburn University majoring in Biomedical Sciences. Rudy was raised by a single mom who worked two jobs to support the family.  Rudy was a high school sophomore when his school was chosen to receive funding to expand the AP program. Before that year, his school didn’t offer much in the way of AP courses for its students. With 56 percent of the largely African-American student body living at or below poverty level, the school - and its students - never had the resources to make the most of the College Board’s AP program.  But all of that changed when his school district agreed to aggressively open the doors of AP to far more students who had not previously had the opportunity to participate.
 
In the first year of the program... Read More...

The National Math and Science Initiative will select three “Teacher of the Year” awards winners (one each for AP math, science and English) from each state participating in the Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program.  Applications are due March 1, 2012 and winners will be notified in March. Eligible teachers are those who have pre-qualified on the basis of their outstanding AP results in 2010-2011. Winners will receive $2,000 as well as an expense paid trip to Washington, D. C. to participate in an awards ceremony and special meetings with members of Congress. 
Teachers listed below are eligible to apply based on the following criteria:

1. Be one of the top ten teachers in your discipline, among all 238 NMSI schools, in the raw number of passing scores in 2011.
2. Be one of the top ten teachers in your discipline, among all 238 NMSI schools, in the raw increase in number of passing scores in 2011 compared to the number of passing scores in 2010.
3. Be the “best in your school” as determined by a formula developed by NMSI based on the number of passing scores in 2011 and other factors.

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Southside and Hokes Bluff AP students who received qualifying scores on the Advanced Placement exams, were recognized prior to football games in October. Scores on the exams are measured on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best possible score. Each student received a $100 check for each qualifying AP score, through the A+ College Ready program.

Southside High Students Receiving Checks (October 2011)




Hokes Bluff Students Receiving Checks (October 2011)

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Two Alabama school districts placed on the College Board’s 2nd Annual AP® District Honor Roll for significant gains in Advanced Placement® access and student performance. Those districts are:
Cleburne County Schools, AL and Hartselle City Schools, AL.

The AP District Honor Roll nationally recognizes and acknowledges districts’ successes and efforts to expand AP access, performance, and commitment to increasing student achievement. Only 367 districts were selected nationwide this year.

Inclusion on the 2nd Annual AP District Honor Roll is based on the following criteria:

• Examination of three years of AP data, from 2009 to 2011;
• Increase in participation in/access to AP by at least 4 percent in large districts, at least 6 percent in medium districts and at least 11 percent in small districts;
• A steady or increasing percentage of exams taken by African American, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native students; and
• Performance levels maintained or improved when comparing the percentage of students in 2011 scoring a 3 or higher to those in 2009, or the school has already attained a performance level in which more than 70 percent of the AP students are scoring a 3 or higher.
• School districts in which low-income and/or underrepresented minority students (African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native) comprise 30 percent or more of the AP student population have been highlighted on the Achievement List to recognize significant improvements in equity and quality among the nation’s historically underserved student populations.
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Rudy Davis, a graduate of Minor High School and a sophomore at Auburn University, majoring in Biomedical Sciences recently participated in a Capitol Hill briefing focused on how to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. Representatives from three Congressional offices attended the panel, moderated by Gregg Fleisher, National Director of NMSI’s Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program.

Rudy was a high school sophomore when Minor High School became a participant in the APTIP program. Prior to participating in the program, there were few Advanced Placement courses offered at Minor. Because of the expansion of AP courses at his school, Rudy enrolled in three AP courses during his junior year and five AP courses during his senior year. During December of his senior year, after participating in eight Advanced Placement courses, he took the ACT test and scored a 31 (up from a 25 in his sophomore year,) and ranked in the 99 percentile in math and science. Rudy was ultimately offered over two million dollars in college scholarships. Rudy spoke about how APTIP prepared him for college, “This program showed me that I had what it takes to get into college and do well.”

Other panelists discussing effective ways to increase math and science achievement in the United States included Lieutenant Colonel Rodney Lewis, “Joining Forces,” Office of the First Lady; Tommie Sue Anthony, President of Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science; and Kia Watson, a senior AP student at Richmond County High School in Virginia.

Those attending the session included a representative from Congresswoman Martha Roby’s office, a representative from the office of Congressman Spencer Bachus, Congresswoman Donna Christensen as well as a member of the House of Representative Education and the Workforce Committee.

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