2/13/2017 – Purchase of AP Exams

 2/13/2017 – Work/Business
Agenda Item – Purchase of AP Exams

Number of Exams Taken and Percent Scoring 3 or Higher

Board Discussion
Dr. Joyce Morley (DeKalb Schools Board) – Are doing anything to help poor people get access to more tests?
Knox Phillips – Currently students on Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) will get two free tests. One paid for by the state and one paid for by the district.
Morley – Are we doing better with AP courses in the the schools in South DeKalb? It was difficult to find people to teach the AP courses and enough students to take those courses.
Knox Phillips – 6 schools in the lead higher program are SouthWest DeKalb, Cedar Grove HS, Stone Mountain HS, Dunwoody HS, Druid Hills HS and Arabia Mountain. We chose those schools to help us with a couple of models. 1 model was access and equity in South DeKalb. It is important to have increased access, equity, course enrollment and course diversity among those schools.
We are looking at the blended learning model so that if a course can’t be offered in the school, then it’s offered in Verge, or some other medium.
We have identified over 400 students who are qualified but would not have normally self selected to enroll in an AP course.
Morley – That’s good. When we talk about Towers HS that has done a complete turn around and we don’t hear anything about them. When there was a lot of crime and a lot of problems they were always out there. Now, nobody mentions what’s going on at Towers.
Clarkston, we have all those immigrants moving forward, and Redan and encouraging them to take the courses. These are the schools where the principals are working hard, there’s been a lot of turn around and they’re holding down the fort there. Also, enable and empower the counselors to identify the students and challenge them.
Knox Phillips – It does to your point about celebrating the small wins. Towers and other schools have teachers that have been trained in AP courses.
This work to date is really speaking to the progress we’re making.
Dr. Green (Superintendent) – This is part of a whole systemic effort that ties to My Brother or My Sister’s Keeper, a resolution from the board to reduce the numbers of suspensions and increase the numbers of people in IB and AP courses.
What I’m pleased to hear is that contrary to popular belief, that when you increase the number of students that the overall score will go down. We are increasing the pipeline and the scores are going up. That’s what is most impressive to me.
Orson – Can we bring this earlier or put this in the budget. Due to the timing it’s creating some confusion as to whether or not the district is going to pay for it or not.
Stan Jester (Board of Education) – Results of the AP exames are a bellweather for how a school is doint. I’ve been extremely disappointed with the AP scores in South DeKalb in the past. If we’ve turned that around then we need to tell everybody about it. Can we see Number of Exams Taken and Percent Scoring 3 or Higher like we have in the past?