Prepare All Students for Advanced Learning

Getting Started with Pre-AP

Dr. Jazrick Haggins, principal of Spoto High School, was looking for high-quality instructional resources to help his students reach their highest potential. After performing research and drawing upon his experience with Pre-AP® at his previous school, Dr. Haggins made the decision to implement the Pre-AP Program as a schoolwide initiative to help provide Spoto High School students with the motivating, grade-level-appropriate instructional content they needed to succeed in high school and beyond.

“We are a Title I school with 75% of our students on free and reduced lunch. Our school grade has consistently been a C, for the past several years. Here in Florida, schools are rated and graded, but we are moving in the direction of a B, and that is with the support of Pre-AP.” 

Dr. Jazrick Haggins, principal

Preparing the Learning Community

School administration held community meetings with students and parents to explain how Pre-AP provides rigorous, grade-level instruction that helps students learn and grow.

School administration scheduled weekly Professional Learning Community meetings to provide teachers with the opportunity to meet and collaborate as a team to plan and incorporate the Pre-AP shared principles and frameworks into their courses.

“We have a very high minority population, and my students have seen success. So when students see success, I know that what we’re doing in the classroom is working. I had a lot of happy students and a lot of happy parents.” 

Dr. Jazrick Haggins, principal

Implementing Pre-AP

The team has implemented the Pre-AP shared principles in all Pre-AP courses and applied those instructional practices across all content areas, including electives. Students within the school are having academic conversations, performing close observation and analysis, asking higher-order questions, and producing evidence-based writing in all courses. Pre-AP is helping all students at Spoto, as can be seen in the proficiency results on state test scores.

The Impact of Pre-AP

The Spoto team noticed that over the past three years, since implementing Pre-AP, there’s been an increase in the level of performance of the lowest quartile students. Students were tested in 2018 and 2019. Due to covid-19, there was no testing in 2020. When reviewing the Florida statewide performance data from 2018–2021, Spoto has shown improvement on their overall test scores from when Pre-AP was initially implemented.

“When test scores came out, we were very pleased. We were No. 16 in the entire district … we were right there in the middle of the rankings, when previously we were at the bottom of the rankings.” 

Dr. Jazrick Haggins, principal 

Top Tips

• As a leader, you have to define Pre-AP within your institution and take your time implementing it. It’s very important that teachers understand that Pre-AP is a framework that they will use and implement with what they’re already doing in their classroom.
• It’s important to introduce Pre-AP in small steps to help ensure the program is successfully implemented. As a leader, you have to plan ahead and be a forward thinker. Thinking ahead will help with the planning and collaboration.
• Make sure you’re open and communicating with parents and students when discussing the benefits of the Pre-AP Program.