AP Program Offers Incentives To Lift Standards.

For school leaders seeking a formula to elevate academic achievement, the Advanced Placement program offers a case study of what can result from high expectations of and rigorous coursework demands on students.

In Oklahoma City, where I worked for seven years as superintendent, we demonstrated that high school students will rise to the challenge of college-level courses.

The Advanced Placement program has become one of the standards used to measure excellence in secondary school education over the last 40 years. In many schools, the force behind the AP program is an inspired high school teacher, a pied piper with the ability to persuade students to pay the price of time and hard work to master the content of an AP course.

In 1986, administrators in Oklahoma City resolved to improve student performance and expand a college-preparatory curriculum, which already included some AP courses. Teachers and administrators collaborated on a program to raise academic standards through Advanced Placement.

Financial Lures

The school district's initiative provided financial, structural, and psychological support in the following ways.

* Additional compensation for AP teachers.

In Oklahoma City, teachers received $1,800 for teaching an AP course and earned a year-end bonus based on the grades of their students on the AP exams. For each student earning the top grade of 5, a teacher received $300. A grade of 4 earned an extra $200, and a grade of 3 provided a $100 stipend. Teachers also were compensated for after-school tutoring.

* Incentives for students to complete AP courses.

To encourage students to take the AP examinations at the end of the school year, the district paid 50 percent of the exam fee and rewarded students with modest scholarships for their college studies, based on their AP exam performance. Funded by the independent Oklahoma City Foundation and the Oklahoma City Public School Foundation, students received a $300 stipend for a 5 on each AP exam, $200 for a 4, and $100 for a 3. Finally, students enrolled in the Advanced Placement program received an additional 0.5 on their weighted grade point averages for each AP class.

* Full access to training and materials by AP teachers.

AP teachers were required to attend one AP workshop each year with the district assuming all costs. AP Calculus teachers received classroom computers, software programs, and graphing calculators for each student. Science teachers received all of the requested lab equipment and supplies needed for their course.

* Active recruitment of AP teachers.

The district placed classified advertisements seeking qualified AP instructors in major newspapers and national education publications.

Energizing Effect

At the end of the first year of the program, the number of AP exams administered to Oklahoma City students increased by 45 percent. In addition, the number of students receiving a grade of 3 or higher--the minimum score used by most colleges to grant academic credit--jumped by 90 percent over the previous year. Between 1989 and 1994, the number of AP exams earning a 3 or higher increased by almost 400 percent. During the past two years, a similar commitment to the AP program in Boston, where I served as deputy superintendent, resulted in a 33 percent increase in enrollment.

The ripple effect of a more demanding curriculum was even more impressive. At most high schools, "status" now mandated that college-bound students be a part of the AP program. After-school and weekend tutoring became the norm, rigorous homework assignments became standard, and students began to believe in their capacity to handle rigorous work.

The ripple also affected members of the faculty. Teachers were honored and rewarded based on AP results. Referring to themselves as "born again," teachers enthusiastically attended workshops, compared notes, rewrote old lectures, and described the positive changes in the classroom. Education had become a serious, exciting business and excellence in teaching was recognized and appreciated by students, parents, and administrators.