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Success Stories in Implementing Academic Acceleration Pathways for Washington Students

May 2024

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Session Agenda

  • AP African American Studies
  • Bellevue School District – Equitable Access
  • Auburn School District – Tools for Encouraging Access
  • Access Courses – Washington Landscape
  • Q&A

Session Objectives

  • Learn new approaches for understanding your district’s current advanced coursework landscape
  • Explore tools that can be utilized to encourage access to advanced coursework
  • Understand the best AP courses suited for introducing new students to rigorous learning and how those connect to the current Washington education landscape

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AP African American Studies

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An interdisciplinary course that examines African American experiences through direct encounters with rich and varied sources, drawing from the fields of literature, the arts and humanities, political science, geography, science, and more.

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Equitable Access to Advanced Placement

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2023-24 Annual Plan

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Educational Excellence

Early Learning: Increase access to high quality, inclusive preschool, particularly for students furthest from educational justice.

Literacy/Biliteracy: Increase percentage of students meeting or exceeding proficiency in reading by the end of grades 3 and 8.

Mathematics Proficiency: Increase percentage of students meeting or exceeding proficiency in math by the end of grades 5, 8, and 10.

Future Ready: Increase equitable access to college credits, industry certifications, Seal of Biliteracy, and/or other future-ready opportunities.

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Problem of Practice at Bellevue High School: Equitable Access to AP

Each year students register for classes in March for the coming Fall Semester. We notice a pattern of students enrolling in AP courses in the spring, but then dropping them in the first couple weeks in September. We disaggregated the data by race and found that not only are students of color disproportionately under-represented in AP courses, they are disproportionately dropping their AP courses in September

- Dr. Vic Anderson, Principal, Bellevue High School

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AP Enrollment by Subgroup

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Dropping AP Courses in the Fall

Withdrew

Enrolled

Percentage of Periods Withdrawn

Asian

60

1359

4%

Black/African American

9

46

20%

Hispanic/Latino

8

121

7%

Two or More Races

19

329

6%

White

37

822

5%

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Seeking to Understand through �Street Data

Empathy Interviews

Focus Groups

Staff

Students

-Enrolled in AP Courses

-Not Enrolled in AP Courses

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Strategic Plan�Belong. Learn. Lead.

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Auburn School District

Superintendent: Director of Student Learning:

Dr. Alan Spicciati Adam Ladage

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Diversity in the Auburn School District

30%

Diversity Models

Qualify for ML Services

57%

Free and Reduced Lunch

72%

BIPOC

40%

Speak a language other than English at home

Born outside the United States

16%

Languages

98+

11%

New to country (<2 years)

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1400+ Students - 2,000+ Courses

Current Enrollment

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Recruiting Encouragment of Students for Next Year

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Auburn School District 2023-2024

AP AFRICAN AMERICAN

STUDIES

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— Pilot Student

“The first thing about Black history we are taught in schools is about slavery, but that’s not where our history began—it’s not fair the first thing when you think of Black history is slavery. I’m glad this course can change the narrative of that.”

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Individual Student Project: Presentation and Oral Defense

AP African American Studies

Students will embark on a three-week project in their AP African American Studies course during which they will define a research topic and line of inquiry, conduct independent research to analyze authentic sources from multiple disciplines, and develop and deliver a presentation about their selected topic.

The project aims to deepen student understanding of content and skills within the discipline of African American Studies. Projects can take a variety of forms. Each project must be anchored in at least four sources such as

    • Primary text-based sources 
    • Secondary text-based sources 
    • Artwork and photography 
    • Literature (e.g., poems, short stories, etc.) 
    • Data sets and maps 
    • Music lyrics 
    • Performances (e.g., plays, music, musicals, exhibits) 
    • Oral histories 
    • Events (e.g., debates, public hearings, speeches, or testimonies)

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141 Students - AP African American Studies

Current Enrollment

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AP Students Enrolled

From 2020 to 2024 we have increase participation by BIPOC students by 354 students. We are closing Equity gaps quickly in AP.

  • The largest increase coming in Hispanic/Latino Students with an additional 205 students.
    • We are now at 27% of our AP Students are Hispanic/Latino (Our HS’s are at 32.5%)
  • We have increased Black/African American Student participation by 51 students.
    • We are now at 8.4% of our AP Students are Black/African American (our HS’s are at 8.6%)

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AP Students Achievement

We increased our AP Exam tests district wide from 819 in 2021 to 1269 in 2022 and then to 1402 exams in 2023 (almost 600 more exams administered) with a projection of 1900 exams in 2024.

Not only did we increase the number of exams taken, but we also increased the number of 3’s or better from 396 in 2021, to 583 in 2022, to 624 in 2023!

ASD had 22 more 4’s and 5’s in 2023 than in 2022 as well.

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Expanding Opportunities for Students with Advanced PLacement

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These AP Courses, Programmed in These Ways

Offered As Early As Possible

Not Just the Honors Section

Enhancement for English 10

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How This Connects to the Washington Education Landscape

Four reasons these courses fit with the current education landscape in the state

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WA Graduation Pathways

Project-Based Learning Focus

Academic Acceleration

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Thank You

Dr. Kelly Aramaki

Superintendent

aramakik@bsd405.org

Bellevue School District

Adam Ladage

Director of Student Learning

aladage@auburn.wednet.edu

Auburn School District

Mikael Taylor

Director, State and District Partnerships

mitaylor@collegeboard.org

College Board

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