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Home > Growing an AP Program in a Small, Rural School District
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Growing an AP Program in a Small, Rural School District
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by Roslyn Sandy
Advanced Placement Program
The College Board
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| | Instilling an Awareness of Academic Possibilities
The Mary Walker School District in rural Springdale, Washington, is committed to preparing all students for success in college. This is a tremendous commitment, as the majority of the district's students are potentially the first in their families to attend college, and, in fact, many are also the first to graduate from high school.
"Poverty, geographic isolation, and lack of academic confidence erode our students' sense of possibilities," says Jerry Dyar, school counselor and AP Coordinator at Mary Walker High School. Dyar and the district's administrators and educators realize that while eliminating poverty may be beyond their capabilities, it is entirely within their means to create an environment not only where students are aware that college is "necessary, affordable, and possible" but one where they will actually be prepared for college-level work.
Guided by research that shows that high-quality and rigorous high school course work is an important predictor of success in college, administrators at Mary Walker High School made a commitment four years ago to expand the school's AP offerings and open the classes to all students who wanted to accept the challenge. "Our AP program is our statement to students, parents, and teachers that we are not only serious about academic preparation but that we believe our students are capable of meeting high standards," explains Dyar.
The high school began by taking $1,000 of the district's funds to send English teacher Don Vanderholm to an AP Summer Institute in preparation for offering AP English Language and Composition for the 2000-2001 academic year.
"Before I started teaching AP I was never really sure how to reach my objectives," says Vanderholm. "I've learned more about teaching English from the institutes than from all my other schooling combined. AP gave me a clear picture of what students need from English and what direction to take in order to get there. Now we have an English program that students are proud to be in."
"When other teachers saw what was happening in Vanderholm's English class, they wanted to offer AP courses in their subject areas," explains Dyar. "All of a sudden we had grassroots demand which was very motivating for administrators to find the resources for proceeding."
The Importance of Vertical Teaming
Funding from the state of Washington's Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP) allowed other teachers to take advantage of the professional development available through the College Board's summer institutes. With APIP funding, the district was able to devise a plan to equip students from this small, rural, and high-poverty school with the skills to compete successfully with students from the country's richest high schools.
Teachers and counselors quickly arrived at two conclusions as they worked to implement the AP program. First, because the total enrollment of the school was only 157 students, the AP program had to be inclusive in order to make best use of the available teaching resources. Second, the high school's AP program could not stand unsupported; in order to find students ready to accept the challenge of AP, teachers had to begin preparing students for success in AP at the elementary school level.
As the high school continued to expand its AP offerings for the 2002-2003 academic year -- with the addition of AP English Literature and Composition, U.S. History, Biology, and Calculus AB -- the teachers and administrators focused on building a K-12 team to align the district's curricula toward preparing all students for success in college. Again, professional development training provided by the College Board proved to be valuable and inspiring for the teachers and administrators of the Mary Walker School District. Individual AP teachers and teams of other teachers and administrators from grades 5 to 12 sought professional development through summer institutes and Vertical Team workshops. Several teachers attended the summer institutes with stipends they earned as College Board AP Fellows.
In the spring of 2003, the district's English Vertical Team applied for and received $10,000 in funding from the College Board Pre-AP® Fellows Program to provide Vertical Team training for all of the 6-12 English teachers and counseling and administrative staff. At the same time, the math Vertical Team set goals to equip all high school students with the skills necessary to enroll in AP Calculus in their senior year and to graduate as many students as possible with college credit in pre-calculus through a program with Eastern Washington University.
In the 2003-2004 academic year the combined junior and senior enrollment at Mary Walker High School was 68 students, with a remarkable 78 percent enrolled in at least one AP class. This is an increase from 21 students enrolled in at least one AP class in 2002-2003 to 53 students enrolled in at least one AP class last year. The school's AP course offerings have also increased from five to seven courses with the addition of AP Psychology and AP Studio Art.
District-Level Support
The district's support and commitment to increasing access to rigorous course work through AP continues. Superintendent Richard Conley announced in September 2004 that the "top two district goals for this year are to strengthen our AP program and to continue to develop our Vertical Teams."
According to Dyar, Mary Walker High School has seen an immediate payoff from AP. With few exceptions, juniors who attempt AP course work continue to take AP their senior year. One student completed all seven AP classes by the 2004 graduation, and many others had completed three to five classes.
Mary Walker High School is proud of its students' achievements. Dyar writes about the school's journey:
The first thing we had to overcome was our own assumptions. Some doubted the relevance of AP for our students, who typically enter the job market after graduation. Some thought that students wouldn't (or couldn't) step up to the challenge of demanding course work. Some thought in a well-meaning way that we were setting students up for failure. Some felt that parents would not be supportive of something so "impractical" as AP.
Many of these apprehensions have been -- or are in the process of being -- refuted. Regardless of what students actually do after graduation, the great majority of them at least harbor ambitions of going to college. Their parents, we have found, far from having low expectations for their children, want them to succeed in high school and go on to college.
Both students and parents have responded to this opportunity. Students are showing pride in their involvement in rigorous classes, and the quality of their work is greatly increasing. Parents, in contact after contact, are grateful for AP and want their children to take advantage of it.
We are beginning to see an increase in the college-going rate -- particularly at the four-year schools. But we have a great deal of ground to make up to match the post-secondary enrollment patterns of higher income districts. We believe that continuing to improve the rigor and quality of our courses will be the biggest factor in narrowing the gap. Our goal: 80 percent college enrollment.
Mary Walker School District's educators and administrators recognized that there are many barriers that keep rural and low-income students from attending college; they also recognized that rigor and expectation were key elements in students' success. With support from the College Board and the state's Advanced Placement Incentive Program, Mary Walker High School has shown that by expecting the most of their students, by providing them with the opportunity to obtain a high-quality education, and by providing support and commitment, any student can succeed.
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