Our Advanced Placement report has garnered quite a bit of national attention in the past two days as it addresses the question of whether the program's expansion is affecting its quality. This column by the Washignton Post's Jay Mathews is the latest news report to feature the study, which the Farkas Duffett Research Group conducted on behalf of Fordham. Mathews, who admits he is particularly obsessed with reporting about the AP program, writes:
This week the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute has released a random survey by the Farkas Duffett Research Group of 1,024 AP teachers which provides the most hopeful news I have seen in a long time on the future of the program, and its accessibility to the middle-of-the-pack high school students I think need it most. Fordham has become a national leader in assessing AP and the similar International Baccalaureate program. It broke new ground two years ago with a study confirming the high standards of rigor and content in both AP and IB exams, based on analysis by professionals in the subjects being tested. The latest study, ???????Growing Pains in the Advanced Placement Program: Do Tough Trade-Offs Lie Ahead????????, takes us into classrooms, and suggests--at least in the eyes of the teachers running the courses--that AP is welcoming more students, but at the same time giving them the same challenging experience that students got when only the top brains were allowed to enroll.
You can read the whole column here.