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Description
Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs are increasingly being used as the pathway to college. It is widely believed that these programs open the doors of higher education to the diverse students found in contemporary classrooms. To date, however, there is scant research into how young people--in particular, those from poor, urban areas--fare in these programs. This article presents a study that examined how schools, teachers, and students in high-poverty urban environments responded to offerings of the AP and IB programs, and the extent to which optimal learning environments were created for highly able learners from multicultural backgrounds. Using a subset of data from a larger study that investigated the more general question of whether AP and IB programs meet the needs of gifted learners, this investigation narrowed the focus to talented minority students in three urban high schools in areas low in income and high in ethnic and cultural diversity.
This research comes at a critical juncture as three disparate trends converge: (a) Significant demographic shifts in metropolitan areas have resulted in "minority-majority" schools where student bodies have become multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural (Frey & Fielding, 1995; Nationalatlas. gov, 2005; U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2004); (b) the number of AP and IB programs is rapidly increasing and have in some cases even been used as indicators of school quality with corresponding efforts to increase minority participation in AP and IB classes (College Board, 1999, 2001, 2005a, 2006a, 2006c; Mathews, 2005); and (c) federal and state government initiatives, such as No Child Left Behind, have commanded public attention and directed funding toward increasing minority participation in programs such as AP and IB as means for closing the achievement gap and developing America's talent (e.g., Massachusetts State Department of Education, 2002; U.S. Department of Education Press Releases, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006).
An examination of how urban schools, teachers, and students are negotiating these new environments is warranted. With so much potentially at stake, how do schools ensure that learners who enter such programs less academically prepared and with fewer support networks nevertheless enjoy an equal opportunity to succeed? How successful are AP and IB programs in educating students from a variety of backgrounds? To what degree do they create a milieu in which students face failure and disillusionment with the learning process?
Two research questions framed this study:
1. Do teachers and the environments created by AP and IB classrooms in high-poverty urban schools provide appropriate educational opportunities for gifted students from racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds, and gifted English language learners?
2. What modifications to curriculum, instruction, and scaffolding in high-poverty urban schools allow students to experience a sense of success and develop a readiness to take on new challenges in college?
The remainder of this paper elucidates the context of these questions; describes how people active in AP courses and the IB program in urban schools experience those programs; interprets those findings against a backdrop of current recommended practice for developing high-end learning; and finally, suggests areas that warrant further investigation.
Context of Talent Development for Urban Students
Changing Demographics
American cities continue to undergo dramatic demographic shifts. Growing diversity, coupled with an increasing number of immigrants, has exerted pressures on urban schools. These changes, set against an unfortunate historic backdrop of racial and income polarization, have had a significant impact on learning opportunities for students in urban schools (Frey & Fielding, 1995). Although educators have endeavored to keep abreast with the differing needs of their increasingly diverse students, a report recently released by the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education (2005) suggested that this quest has been largely unsuccessful, concluding that "... our nation's K-12 education system remains unequal and increasingly segregated by race and income" (p. 6). There are pronounced differences in educational opportunities for rich versus poor students; many minority children must attend classes taught by underqualified teachers in classrooms that lack access to adequate resources (Oakes, 2004). Addressing these inequalities is particularly important given the critical link between quality instruction and academic achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2004).
Growth of AP and IB
The changes seen in metropolitan areas in the United States have coincided with a dramatic growth in AP courses and the IB program offerings and student enrollment. First conceived as a response to an innovative program introduced by the Ford Foundation that provided college scholarships to highly able secondary school sophomores, AP courses were introduced in the mid-1950s as a means to retain bright students in their home high schools (Callahan, 2003). In the 1955-1956 school year, 1,229 seniors from 104 participating schools took 2,199 exams. At that time, 130 colleges were listed as accepting AP credit. Intended initially for 5% of high school seniors, AP courses soon became available to wider groups of students (often 10-20% in many schools), to juniors as course options increased, and eventually to even younger students (Rothschild, 1995). By May 2006, more than 2.3 million exams were administered to more than 1.3 million students, an increase in total of approximately 105,066% (College Board, 2006b). No national data are available on the number of students taking part in AP coursework at some point in their high school career.
The IB, in contrast to the AP's collection of individual courses, is a pre-university program of study. Originating in Europe, its goal was to standardize secondary programs across international school settings producing a set of examinations and qualifications that could be taken, and would be recognized, in any part of the world. Unlike AP students, IB students are expected to complete a course of study following specific requirements that include study in both the humanities and sciences. This more holistic approach to secondary studies includes an emphasis on more metacognitive aspects of learning such as "learning how to learn, how to analyze, and how to reach considered conclusions about people, their languages and literature, their ways in society, and the scientific forces of the environment" (International Baccalaureate North America, 1986, p. 1).
Although the Advanced Placement courses stand as individual educational pursuits, the aim of the IB is to transcend achievement of particular content-related goals in specific subject areas to achieve the more comprehensive goal of developing "to their fullest potential the powers of each individual to understand, to modify and to enjoy his or her environment, both inner and outer, in its physical, social, oral, aesthetic, and spiritual aspects" (International Baccalaureate Organization, 2004, p. 4). To ensure program integrity, a school must be approved through formal application and a review process to participate in the IB program. The school must offer all of the courses in the program that lead to the diploma. The IB program is fashioned after the European model of secondary studies, whereby high school spans an additional year and is typically followed by just 3 years of undergraduate study at the university level.
As with AP, participation in the IB program has increased dramatically since its inception. IB was first available in 1971 in only 20 schools. Currently, the IB Diploma Program is available in 520 United States high schools, an increase of approximately 2,500% (International Baccalaureate Organization, 2007). As a way of providing context, the total number of public high schools in the United States in the 2003-2004 school year was reported to be roughly 18,000 (Hoffman & Sable, 2006). In May 2004, nearly 38,000 candidates took more than 100,000 exams (International Baccalaureate North America, 2004, p. 2).
Factors Contributing to Growth--Perceived Benefits
Readily Available Curricula. The growth of the AP and IB programs has been attributed to a number of factors. First, both alternatives offer readily available curricula. Second, the curricular frameworks are accompanied by opportunities for teacher training in implementation. Often, high schools do not have a coordinator to address the needs of college-bound students or they rely upon just one person to advocate for all talented students at the secondary level. When personnel and resources are scarce, prepackaged curricula for advanced coursework such as AP and IB programs are attractive frameworks. The appeal of AP and IB classes is further enhanced by the lack of other curricular and programming options offering equally high levels of challenge for able high school students. AP and IB programs have become increasingly endorsed by federal and state education policy and are often highly recommended by state officials and school leaders. For example, recommendations in the journals for secondary school principals encourage the development of AP and IB programs for highly able secondary learners (Cox, 1983; Cox & Daniel, 1985; Daniel & Cox, 1992; Marnholtz, 1994; Pyryt, Masharov, & Feng, 1993).
Less Time/Less Cost in College. One of the oft-cited potential benefits of completing AP courses and the IB program is the opportunity to complete the bachelor's degree in shorter time, thus saving money on tuition. Eric Smith, former Superintendent of Schools for Arundel County, MD, asserted, "Many of these students will enter college as sophomores and have enough money saved from eliminating their freshman requirements to allow them to plan for graduate studies" (College Entrance Examination Board and Educational Testing Service, 1999, p. 26). Although there are many anecdotal reports of students who have managed to save a year of college tuition through this route, no research base exists to verify the percentage of AP or IB students who actually complete college in less than the traditional 4 years. Further, there currently appears to be a movement among certain elite universities to revise their AP credit policies with respect to allowing undergraduates to be exempt from certain introductory courses (Lichten, 2007).
Better Prepared for College. Another perceived benefit of taking college-level courses in high school is the belief that one will develop study skills necessary to successfully complete college, especially for students who might become the first family member to attend college or among peer groups who do not consider education a promising option for the future (Paige & Marcus, 2004). As Paige and Marcus explained,
Many state systems have ... embarked on integrating and expanding advanced courses into curricular reform efforts, based on the common-sense observation that students who have taken challenging courses are going to be better prepared for college than those who have not. (p. 5)
Research to support this common-sense notion is, as yet, scant. Nevertheless, the National Center for Educational Accountability reported that, based on data from Texas schools, even students who scored less than 3 on AP examinations in high school were twice as likely to graduate from college in 5 years as students who had not taken an AP course (Mathews, 2004). These results confirmed earlier findings by Adelman (1999) of a relationship between AP course taking and bachelor's degree completion. Other researchers, however, have questioned the link between taking AP courses and preparedness for college. In a study based on a sample of 81,445 freshmen entering the University of California between 1998 and 2001, Geiser and Santelices (2004) found that "controlling for other academic and socioeconomic factors, the number of AP and honors courses taken in high school bears little or no relationship to students' later performance in college" (p. 1). Although exploring this controversy in depth is beyond the scope of this article, the reader is encouraged to read Camara and Michaelides' (2005) review of the important reports on this issue, as well as descriptions of other investigations in Texas as they become publicly available (e.g., Keng & Dodd [in press] and Hargrove, Godin, & Dodd [in press] as described in College Board, 2007).
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