Articles and research on AP Classes

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• Studies Find Benefits to Advanced Placement Courses, Washington Post, January 29, 2007 - A study of 222,289 students from all backgrounds attending a wide range of Texas universities, found "strong evidence of benefits to students who participate in both AP courses and exams in terms of higher GPAs, credit hours earned and four-year graduation rates."
• Why AP Matters, Newsweek, May 8, 2006 - "Large studies in Texas and California done over the past two years indicate that good grades on AP tests significantly increase chances of earning college degrees. That has led many public schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods to look for ways to get their students into AP."
• IB + IQ = Success, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, February 9, 2006 - news article about the impelentation of an International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme at Lincoln High School in Manitowoc.
• Advanced classes open doors for minorities, Green Bay Post Gazette, February 7, 2006 - What one district is doing to increase participation of minority students in advanced placement classes
• How to Buld a Better High School, Newsweek, May, 16, 2005 - The measure is controversial, but students who take AP exams—even if they don't do well—are better prepared than those who don't. Jay Matthews article
• Bleske-Rechek, A., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2004). Meeting the educational needs of special populations.  Advance placement's role in developing exceptional human capital.  Psychological Science, 15, 217-224. The authors evaluated the Advanced Placement (AP) program from the point of view of intellectually precocious youth and their subsequent educational-vocational outcomes, analyzing normative and idiographic longitudinal data collected across 30 years from 3,937 participants. Most took AP courses in high school, and those who did frequently nominated an AP course as their favorite. Students who took AP courses, compared with their intellectual peers who did not, appeared more satisfied with the intellectual caliber of their high school experience and, ultimately, achieved more.
• Is AP too good to be true?, U.S. News & World Report, September 19, 2005 - documents concerns that AP curriculum is being watered down and taught by poorly prepared teachers leading to the finding by Geiser that simply taking AP courses is no indicator of success in college. However, performance on AP exams is strongly correlated with success in college. Justin Ewers article
• Standards tighten for Advanced Placement courses, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 11, 2005 -
• Grier, T.B. (2002) Advance placement: Access to excellence. Principal Leadership - Terry B. Grier is superintendent of Guilford County Schools in Greensboro, NC and he reports on how their district has used AP classes as a means to raise expectations for all students. As he writes, "AP courses are not for the elite; they are for the prepared." Grier also notes that "Research supports exposing more poor and minority students to rigorous curricula as an effective strategy to close the achievement gap."