AP ASAP?
School system pushes to increase enrollment in advanced courses
By Richard Foster CONTRIBUTING WRITER

James River High School sophomore Jill McGarrity (right) hopes to earn college credit for an AP history course she's taking with teacher Laura Lay (left).

Since the 2004-05 school year, enrollment has almost doubled in Advanced Placement (AP) classes in Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS), from 2,520 registrations to 4,969 this year, but AP test scores have also fallen in the county as kids sign up for the more challenging, college-preparatory classes.

The enrollment growth is the result of a major push by the school system over the last few years to increase the number of AP classes offered, as well as the numbers of kids signing up for AP classes.

"Research confirms that students who put the effort into learning the study habits to do Advanced Placement work are more likely to be prepared for college work," says Dr. Dale Kalkofen, Chesterfield's assistant superintendent for instructional support. "There's research showing that if a student completes even one AP course in high school, it increases their likelihood of graduating from college significantly, so we thought it would be beneficial to students in Chesterfield."

CCPS has been paying for the necessary College Board training for any school teacher who wishes to teach an AP course - usually a one- or two-week summer course, Kalkofen says. Now the school system offers 31 AP courses, ranging from traditional subjects such as history and English to music theory and Latin literature.

James River High School teacher Laura Lay, the school's social studies department chair, teaches four classes of AP World History to sophomores and says it makes for excellent college preparation. "It truly takes a global approach to world history. It isn't just a western civilization course with a little bit of Africa thrown in," Lay says. "It's challenging and rigorous, and it depends on analyzing primary source documents and truly delving into history in a way that I had not seen [students] do in previous classes."

Lay saw enrollment grow in AP classes after James River eliminated its honor courses, which offered the same weighted course credit benefits as AP courses without the College Board-certified curriculums and standardized testing. The county also increased AP enrollment by making it mandatory for sophomores to take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, which includes a statistical tool identifying students who are capable of doing APlevel work, Kalkofen says.

With greater numbers of students taking AP classes, testing scores have gone down some, acknowledges Kevin Hughes, assistant director of the county's Office of School Improvement. Last school year, the county started paying for every student enrolled in an AP course to take the Advanced Placement Exam. ("That's quite an investment," notes Kalkofen. "It's roughly $500,000 a year.") Of students last year who took the AP Exam, which is graded on a five-point scale, 50.7 percent earned a passing score of 3 or better. However, 66 percent earned a passing score the previous year.

Lay says some of her students are having to work harder to pass the exams, but she doesn't think it's a bad thing for them to struggle a little, because AP classes teach valuable college prep skills. There's also plenty of help available for students, she adds, including lunchtime study sessions with teachers.

"Anecdotally, the results are great," Lay says. Students who have gone on to college "write back and say, 'I am so glad I learned how to write a research paper!'"