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Increase Access and Opportunity

See how districts use the SAT Suite and AP Program to broaden student access to opportunities to build the skills needed for success.

These spotlights capture a moment in time. The featured educators, courses, or assessment offerings at a particular school or district may have changed but the strategies and learnings are timeless.

Empowering Students and Expanding Access with AP Precalculus

Program: AP

Description: To create more distinction between honors versus AP Precalculus, Atlantic Coast High School decided to remove the honors option and only offer AP Precalculus. This resulted in an influx of students with diverse proficiency levels. Remarkably, students representing untapped populations enrolled and succeeded in the course.  

How: Atlantic Coast High School in Jacksonville, Fla., is working to increase the percentage of students who complete Algebra 2 or Algebra 2 Honors and choose to take AP Precalculus. 

The school offered both honors precalculus and AP Precalculus but recognized that the level of rigor between the two courses was ill-defined. They chose to eliminate the honors course and invest fully in AP Precalculus. 

With students from diverse groups enrolling, including those with 504 plans, those needing Exceptional Student Education (ESE), and English language learners (ELL), the school prioritized offering individualized instruction to help meet the needs of all math skill levels.

This Title I school prepared its teachers by sending them to AP Summer Institutes. By changing up instructional approaches to accommodate different learning styles, they were able to roll out the welcome mat to these new-to-AP students. 

Read more about the school’s experience with AP Precalculus here. 

Shared by: Atlantic Coast High School, Duval County School District, FL 

Broadening AP Access with AP African American Studies

Program: AP

Description: This district recognized the powerful influence AP African American Studies could have in attracting students who may not have considered Advanced Placement® courses previously. This single course also satisfied district and statewide learning goals and graduation requirements.

How: AP African American Studies offers a dynamic and robust examination of the history, culture, and literature of African Americans and the larger African diaspora. Its structure and approach gave California’s Chaffey Joint Union High School District an opportunity to introduce Advanced Placement to a wider audience.   

In addition to expanding access, this course aligned with the district’s vision that all students graduate college- and career-ready. It also allowed students to fulfill high school graduation requirements and meet an upcoming statewide requirement to complete an ethnic studies course. As teachers and students discovered however, the course’s benefits extended well beyond satisfying requirements. 

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the course, coupled with a rigorous research project that challenged students to find and evaluate evidence then independently draw their own conclusions, students felt empowered learning about history through an African American lens. Their contributions in helping shape the class built their confidence and led students to meaningful engagement. Any student in any state would benefit from this same experience. Read Chaffey's story here.

Shared by: Chaffey Joint Union High School District, San Bernardino, CA

Revealing Student Success and Potential

Program: SAT, AP

Description: Insights from the SAT Suite and AP assessments help the district uncover student potential and pinpoint academic challenges.

How: In Stafford County Public Schools, the journey to understanding and nurturing each student’s academic potential begins with the SAT Suite and AP. Superintendent Thomas Taylor has advocated for leveraging these tools to their fullest extent, viewing them as more than just tests. He sees them as gateways to uncovering both student success and untapped potential. With insights district educators receive from the assessments, they’re able to target and pinpoint challenges their students have had that were previously unidentified. Students are also able to be connected with pathways they might not have considered otherwise.

The district uses PSAT-related assessments for grades 8−10 to track performance. This continuous monitoring provides valuable insights to help tailor educational experiences to students’ needs. AP Potential™ plays a significant role as well. The tool helps educators identify students who are ready for AP based on their performance on SAT Suite assessments. AP Potential can initiate important conversations between students and their school counselors about enrollment in AP courses.

Stafford County Public Schools is also a demonstration site for Career Kickstart™, a program that Superintendent Taylor sees as a promising future initiative. This program aims to broaden access to career exploration opportunities.

Through these efforts, the district isn’t only preparing students for college. It’s also equipping them with the knowledge and skills to succeed in whatever paths they choose.

"The AP, SAT, and PSAT-related assessments are really avenues to reveal success that students have experienced so far, and an avenue to reveal potential. These are tremendously useful tools in the K−12 space because of our ability to reveal success compared against the national pool of test takers who have a proclivity to go to some kind of postsecondary learning. The opportunity to connect a student with a pathway that they otherwise wouldn't have experienced because they had success on an assessment or an opportunity to target and pinpoint some challenges previously unidentified is absolutely critical to the work that we do." —Thomas Taylor, Former Superintendent, Stafford County Public Schools, VA

Watch the full video to learn how Thomas’ district uses data from the SAT Suite and the AP Program to connect students with the pathway that’s best for them.

Shared by: Stafford County Public Schools, VA 

Identifying and Addressing a Gender Gap to Build AP Participation 

Program: AP

Description: To increase interest and participation in AP courses, especially among males and particularly male students of color, Uniondale Union Free School District created a comprehensive campaign called “AP is U” that helped spread the message via in-school posters, newspaper advertising, a video, and a webpage. The campaign sought to dispel perceptions that AP was elitist, boost confidence in each student’s ability to successfully manage the rigor of AP, and put a human face on the coursework. 

How: Comparing its current AP enrollments against the rosters of prospective students generated through AP Potential, Uniondale Union Free School District discovered an imbalance—that more girls than boys enrolled in AP courses. In fact, the data bore out that enrollment was 70% female to 30% male. Particularly lacking were male students of color. This data surprised their Superintendent, Dr. Monique Darrisaw-Akil. “It hit me like a bolt of lightning and made me determined to close the gender gap in our AP participation with intentional planning and outreach.” 

Students most in need of exposure to the college-going mindset and college cost savings that AP classes afforded were missing out. And they may be deprived of the valuable real-life skills built through AP courses, like critical thinking, collaboration, and time management. 

To uncover the “why?”, the school district learned they first had to overcome the perception that AP was selective and only students of high academic caliber could succeed. This perception existed not just among students, but also parents. First, the school district eliminated many prerequisites that may have been barriers in the past. Next, they set ambitious goals to 1) increase AP enrollment by 10% over a two-year period and 2) increase AP enrollment by male students of color by 15% over a two-year period. They significantly surpassed both goals thanks to a multichannel campaign using students to share their success stories. 

To districts that seek to broaden access to AP, Dr. Stacie Reid, Director of Guidance, advises “Connect with the entire school community. This can’t be a top-down initiative. It has to be inclusive. Speak to your teachers and counselors because when they’re excited and passionate about something it can build student interest. Have conversations to change student mindsets and behaviors to encourage them to think ‘You can do this.’ Make sure there is support for students, so they succeed, perhaps by providing peer mentoring or tutoring.” 

Read the full story here, including samples from their campaign and some practical pointers.

Shared By: Uniondale Union Free School District, Uniondale, NY

Identifying Students Who Are Ready for Advanced Coursework

Program: SAT, AP

Description: The school uses data from the SAT Suite of Assessments and the AP Potential tool to learn where students are academically so they could determine the best way to meet their needs.

How: "Data from the SAT Suite of Assessments has helped us tremendously, especially in regards to our AP program. Between AP Potential and the PSAT 8/9 and PSAT/NMSQT assessments that we give, we are able to find those 'diamond in the rough' students that may not have had the academic successes that would have lent themselves to being successful in AP classes traditionally, but we are able to see that 'untapped' potential and use that as motivation for them. The SAT Suite of Assessments gives us a true gauge of where students are in the learning process, and we utilize it as an important data point when analyzing how to best meet the needs of students."─Brett McCann, Former Principal, Streetsboro High School, OH

Shared by: Streetsboro High School, OH

Providing Advanced Learning Opportunities for Students of All Abilities

Program: AP

Description: This AP District of the Year winner implemented policies that broadened access to AP and delivered positive results for students.

How: Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District in New York was honored as the 2023 AP Medium District of the Year for its outstanding efforts to broaden access to Advanced Placement® and deliver positive outcomes for students.  

To achieve these results, the district used methods of instruction that allowed a wider range of students to succeed in AP.  

A section of its AP English Language and Composition course is cotaught by special education and general education teachers. Seniors are encouraged to enroll if they haven’t previously taken the course or AP Seminar. Students are encouraged to attend a support period to help them outside the classroom if necessary.  

The AP Capstone™ program, which includes AP Seminar and AP Research, is also cotaught. Pairing English and Social Studies teachers, along with the help of media specialists, has reduced the teacher-to-student ratio to 1:12. Students benefit from having more individualized support from their teachers, and their chances of success increase.

The impact of the district’s effort can be seen in the data: 70% of students graduating from Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District have taken at least one AP course.  

"We’re committed to access and participation in education and ensuring that a diverse range of students can benefit from and succeed in challenging academic programs. We really believe in the research that college and career access is improved when students are involved in high-level work, and the AP curriculum is as good as it gets.” ─Scott Bersin, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Bellmore-Merrick CHSD, NY

Watch this video and read this blog post to learn more about how Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District expanded access to AP.   

Shared by: Bellmore-Merrick CHSD, NY

English Sequence Options for AP Seminar 

Program: AP

Description: This school adopted AP Seminar as a core English course and replaced their Honors courses with Pre-AP English 1 to help students build the skills they’d need to succeed.

How:"We knew that adding AP Seminar to our English sequence would engage more students because of its project-based assessments and skills-based framework. We also knew that introducing Pre-AP would lead to stronger outcomes for our students who needed more support. Over time in our English department, our narrative became 'What skills do we need to develop here?' versus 'How many books will we get through this year?' We believe that AP Seminar was the foundational course for our English sequence.” ─Tanya Bernier, Dean of English Language Arts, B.M.C. Durfee High School, MA

Read the full case study.

Shared by: B.M.C. Durfee High School, MA

Increasing College Enrollment

Programs: SAT, AP

Description: Administrators leverage data from the SAT Suite of Assessments to help inform program- and classroom-specific changes.

How:"We use AP, SAT, and PSAT-related assessments to help guide our decision making at a macro and micro level. This allows for program- and classroom-specific changes based on data. We've had a 95% increase in AP Exams taken and a 94% increase in the number of students taking AP courses in the last 2 years. Since we started to analyze the data related to the SAT Suite of Assessments, we increased the number of our graduates attending college by 15 percentage points and went from 0 to 5 students participating in the National Merit® Scholar Program. The SAT Suite is clearly having a positive impact." —Dr. Mark Smithberger, Principal, Berea City School District, OH

Shared by: Berea City School District, OH