January 24, 2017
Analyst: Derek Kulnis
New York City will spend 1.6 million dollars in order to expand AP to more black and Hispanic students. The program, called Lead Higher, “aims to bring 1,400 of these students at two dozen public schools into AP classes,” according to Ben Chapman in The New York Daily News.
The program is an extension of the city’s attempt to expand the reach of the AP, which Mayor Bill de Blasio first outlined in 2015. De Blasio’s initiative, AP for All, is designed to increase access to AP courses and exams. According to Ben Chapman, “75% of students will have access to at least five AP classes by fall 2018. By fall 2021, students at all high schools will have access to at least five AP classes.”
Chapman explains that “the Lead Higher program builds on that effort by adding tutoring, teacher training and more AP seats targeted at black and Hispanic students at high schools across the five boroughs starting in September.” He notes that seven more schools will add AP resources as a part of the program in 2019.
A Seattle-based nonprofit called Equal Opportunity Schools is splitting both the cost of the program and its rollout with the city. The cost according to Chapman will be “about $21 million for the 2016-17 school year and $51 million each year when fully phased in by fall 2021.”
A record number of students in New York City are taking and passing AP exams. Matthew Chayes in Newsday notes that “according to figures released Tuesday by the city’s Department of Education, 44,906 students took at least one AP course in 2016, up from 41,419 in 2015, an 8.4 percent increase.”
Chayes goes on to state that “the number of AP test-takers who passed at least one exam rose by 8.2 percent,” according to figures released by the Department of Education.
Links and Resources:
http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/de-blasio-record-number-of-ap-students-in-nyc-high-schools-1.12971702