Share:
House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 6, 2014 10:11 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative James R. Roebuck, Jr. |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Promoting Access to Advanced Placement Courses |
| As part of a two bill package, I will be introducing legislation intended to promote high school student access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses in our public schools by providing school districts with the opportunity to apply for funds that will train a teacher in an Advanced Placement course in one of the four core academic areas of Mathematics, English Language Arts, Science and Social Studies where there currently are none offered by the school district. Presently a major obstacle for a school district to provide Advanced Placement courses is the cost of training teachers to be qualified to teach these AP courses. This legislation will provide funding to train teachers to teach Advanced Placement courses in those high schools that do not have AP courses in the four core academic areas; and for those high schools where a teacher retirement will result in no longer having a teacher in one of these AP courses. The College Board estimates that 60% of AP teachers will retire in the next 10 years. To be eligible for funding, a school district has to commit to providing AP courses in the subject area that the teacher is trained in for at least three years. The training of these teachers will also count toward their professional development requirements. The importance and benefits of Advanced Placement Courses cannot be underestimated. Pennsylvania recognizes its importance in the new School Performance Profiles which include AP participation and performance in high school as an indicator of academic achievement that determines a high school’s academic performance score. There are also clear benefits to promoting student participation in AP courses. Providing high school students with the opportunity to take rigorous academic courses that can lead to the awarding of college academic credits based on their scores on Advanced Placement tests will save these students and their families thousands of dollars in college tuition costs. The use of AP courses in our high schools also increases the academic rigor in our schools for our students while improving the quality of instruction by those teachers who will be teaching both regular and Advanced Placement courses. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania has fewer students taking AP courses and exams than the national average and almost all of its surrounding states. Nationwide for the public high school class of 2013, over 1 million graduates have taken an AP exam with over 600,000 of these students scoring 3 or more on an AP exam leading to possible awarding of college academic credit. Pennsylvania is lower than the national average in the percentage of students taking both AP courses and AP exams. Nationally 33% of 11th and 12th grade public school students have taken an AP course while only 23% of Pennsylvania students have taken an AP course. Nationally, while 478 out of every 1,000 11th and 12th graders have taken an AP exam only 359 out of every 1,000 Pennsylvania students have taken an AP exam. Pennsylvania also trails the surrounding states of New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland and Delaware in the percentage of students taking AP courses and exams. Finally, the savings in college costs to these families will far exceed the minimal cost of this program. Based on existing data and studies, training the estimated 885 teachers needed in our public schools to ensure that every high school in the state can provide AP courses in the four core academic areas would cost the state just over $1 million compared to the nearly $17 million in estimated tuition savings to families whose students obtain a score of 3 or higher on the AP exam from teaching just one AP class. The savings would grow significantly for families and the state as these teachers are likely to teach more than one AP class a year and these savings would continue to accrue every year thereafter. If you have any questions, please contact my office at 717-787-7044. Thank you in advance for your support. |
Introduced as HB2075