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High Expectations

Growing Pains in the Advanced Placement Program: Do Tough Trade-Offs Lie Ahead?

Steve Farkas Ann Duffett
4.29.2009
4.29.2009

In 2002-2003, 1 million students participated in AP by taking at least one exam. Five years later, nearly 1.6 million did—a 50+ percent increase. But is growth all good? Might there be a downside? Are ill prepared students eroding the quality of the program? Perhaps harming the best and brightest? To find out, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute commissioned the Farkas Duffett Research Group to survey AP teachers in public high schools across the country. Perhaps not surprisingly, the AP program remains very popular with its teachers. But there are signs that the move toward "open door" access to AP is starting to cause concern. Read the report to learn more.

An interview with Steve Farkas, President of the Farkas Duffett Research Group.
Fordham commissioned the FDR Group to research and write this report.


Policy Priority:
High Expectations
Topics:
Advanced Education
Tags: Advanced Placement
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Steve Farkas is the President of Farkas Duffett Research Group. Prior to co-founding the FDR Group, Steve was Director of Research at Public Agenda, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank, from 1992 to 2004. Originally planning a career in political consulting, he began with a short stint as a Senior Research Analyst at Penn & Schoen, Inc., in 1990.Steve is the principal author of over 100 major opinion studies on a…

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Co-founder and partner of the FDR Group, Ann Duffett has been conducting public opinion research since 1994. Ann's career in survey research began at Louis Harris and Associates (currently known as Harris Interactive). As a key member of Harris's public policy research team, she conducted both public and proprietary opinion research on health care, public education, women's issues, and youth violence. As Senior Vice…

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