Washington Monthly - September/October 2021 - 37

the curriculum. " A lot of schools give AP European History
in communities that have nothing but kids of color, "
he said. " It's ridiculous. " More students would succeed in
AP, Kolluri argues, if the content were more relevant to
their experiences.
Kolluri also believes that schools can reduce these
disparities by changing the way they teach the AP classes
they do have. In the Harvard Educational Review, Kolluri
wrote about two predominantly low-income and Latino
high schools that improved their AP participation
and pass rates by double digits in less than a decade. One
successful strategy, he found, was the incorporation of
Spanish-language instruction and materials linked to
students' home cultures, even though these modifications
were not, strictly speaking, approved by the College
Board. Students in an AP Environmental Science class,
for instance, watched a documentary about poverty and
agriculture in Guatemala, while AP U.S. Government students
discussed local issues involving immigration and
criminal justice. " The question is how to offer more opportunity
to kids by connecting to their worlds, " Kolluri
said. The College Board, he told me, needs to allow more
flexibility for this kind of teaching.
Another alternative is to look outside AP altogether.
While there's a mountain of research purporting to validate
AP's value, much of it is sponsored by the College
Board, leaving many academics uncertain about the actual
utility. " From an outsider's perspective, it seems convenient
that much of the College Board's research on the
AP program indicates that the program is beneficial for
high school students, " wrote Russell Warne of Utah Valley
University in a 2017 survey of studies about AP's impact.
Some of the independent studies that do exist find
that the program's reported impacts might have more to
do with students' innate abilities than with the classes
themselves. " While there is evidence of a correlation between
AP experience and college success (because AP students
tend to be capable and highly motivated), there is
no evidence from methodologically rigorous studies that
AP experience causes [emphasis added] students to be
successful in college, " the University of Denver's Klopfenstein
wrote with the Mississippi State University professor
Kathleen Thomas in 2010.
After controlling for factors such as household income
and parental education, AP course taking " does
not reliably predict first-year grades or retention to
the second year, " Klopfenstein and Thomas found in a
2009 study. Instead, what predictive power AP does
have is " likely the result of signaling: high ability, motivated
students take more AP classes to differentiate
themselves from other students in the college application
process. "
And while the College Board argues that the challenge
of AP itself helps prepare students for college by
building good study skills and exposing them to rigorous
material, other scholars argue that the costs outweigh
the benefits for students unprepared to succeed. " The
kids who [score] 1 or 2 on their AP . . . exams don't appear
to have gained any benefit from taking that course, " says
Philip Sadler, a senior lecturer at Harvard University who
studies STEM education. Given the resources needed to
implement AP, Sadler says, cash-strapped districts might
be better off using their resources to strengthen K-8 instruction
or to offer students alternatives.
One of those alternatives is dual or concurrent enrollment
at a partnering community or four-year college.
Under some models, classes are taught by high school
teachers; in others, students attend classes on a college
campus. Like AP, dual enrollment has expanded rapidly,
with an estimated 1.4 million students taking at least one
dual enrollment class in 2010 (the most recent year for
which data is available).
Dual enrollment, where
students take college classes
while in high school, has
several advantages over AP.
It seems to be somewhat
better at enrolling a diversity
of students. Success is not
dependent on a single test.
And students get more
feedback and a potentially
better shot at passing.
Proponents say the model has a couple of advantages
over AP. First, success is not dependent on a single
test at the end of the course administered by the College
Board, but on course work throughout the year. Students
get more feedback and a potentially better shot at passing.
Students who pass also have the certainty of college
credit from the partner institution, while colleges vary
widely in whether they accept AP (and many colleges only
confer credit on top scorers anyway). Another advantage
of dual enrollment is that classes aren't limited to the 38
sanctioned by the College Board, providing students with
more choices and flexibility. Career and technical classes
account for about 30 percent of dual enrollments, according
to the nonprofit National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment
Partnerships (NACEP).
Dual enrollment can also more closely replicate the
actual college experience, NACEP board member Trey
Washington Monthly 37
Washington Monthly - September/October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Washington Monthly - September/October 2021
