Advanced Placement (AP)

"Preparing for college and work requires taking the right courses." - Crisis at the Core, 2004

Expanding access to Advanced Placement (AP) college-level courses is one of five goals in the Blueprint for Action - the action plan for delivering on the New Wisconsin Promise. The ultimate goal of the New Wisconsin Promise is to close the achievement gap that exists among students based on ethnicity and income.


First Regional Reader

The Wisconsin Advanced Placement Advisory Council (WAPAC) is a group of 15 representatives from secondary and collegiate institutions from Wisconsin. Its mission is to promote AP opportunities for Wisconsin students. At the suggestion of WAPAC, the College Board has initiated The Regional Reader, a newsletter designed to share information between states, districts, and universities in the Midwest Region. Click here to assess the inaugural issue which features Wisconsin.

Free AP Test Preparation Resources

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers free test preparation materials for three Advanced Placement courses through their OpenCourseWare website: AP Biology, AP Calculus, and AP Physics. These resources include video clips, lecture notes, practice problems and solutions, and exam questions and responses. Click here to access these resources and other free introductory online college courses.

Promoting Student Success with Vertical Teams

In 2006, the National Governors Association (NGA) awarded the Office of the Governor and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction a $500,000 two-year grant to expand Advanced Placement in selected pilot schools. Nine partner school districts, Benton, Cashton, DeSoto, Ithaca, Madison Metropolitan, Pecatonica, Platteville, River Valley, and Viroqua, as well as The College Board, CESAs 3, 4, and 9, the Wisconsin Academy Staff Development Initiative (WASDI), and UW-Madison’s Center on Education and Work (CEW) participated in the grant activities which focused on:

• Increasing the number of Advanced Placement (AP) courses offered.
• Training teachers, counselors, and administrators to offer and support AP courses.
• Increasing the number of students enrolled in AP, especially those from traditionally under-represented groups.

A key strategy in furthering these goals was the creation of vertical teams. Vertical teams most commonly consist of middle school and high school educators who teach in the same academic area. However, they may also include elementary teachers, school counselors, administrators, department chairs, or curriculum specialists. The concept of vertical teams is based on a philosophy of inclusion; on the notion that all students benefit from experiencing a rich and rigorous curriculum. The aim is to provide students with the concepts, skills, and habits of mind which will allow them to engage in demanding coursework. These tools, however, are not developed in a single, isolated course, but rather are cultivated over a period of several years. Vertical teams design a coherent sequence of learning that builds with increasing depth and complexity from middle school through high school to increase achievement and success for all students.

With support from the NGA grant, the nine partner schools established vertical teams, initially in science and math, to examine district curriculum. Members of these teams offer advice for others who are considering this approach. Dan Roberts, a mathematics teacher at Pecatonica points out the importance of scaffolding skills. “You’ve got to start early – you can’t just tell a sophomore, ‘You should take calculus next year.’ We want to be sure the students get the prerequisite skills earlier for the higher level math.” DeSoto science teacher, Karla Walker, adds, “Our curriculum team took the approach of ‘spiraling’ and asked, ‘Where can we go shallower with content and where do we need to go deeper?’ The impact was felt even in the elementary curriculum.”

These types of questions resulted in identifying gaps and overlaps. Wanda Esch, a mathematics teacher in the River Valley School District says, “I’m sure our eyes popped when we found out that the middle school math curriculum introduces slope in seventh grade. Knowing this, we realized we could go deeper into statistics with students in high school. Before this, we’d never gotten that far.” The science vertical team from Ithaca identified and eliminated significant redundancies - so many that they literally created an additional quarter of learning for students. “We found enough overlaps in the scope and sequence of our curriculum,” shares science teacher Emmie Kirchner, “that middle school teacher, Chris Willis, will have a whole quarter to teach anatomy for the first time.”

In addition to preparing students for success in rigorous coursework and connecting curriculum across grade levels, vertical teams encourage coordination and communication among staff. Randy Eide, chair of the Madison East High School science department, describes East’s approach as horizontal as well as vertical. “Within East, we are hoping to standardize our approach to graphing. Our goal is that all the mathematics and science teachers will use common language relative to graphing in all classes so kids hear a consistent message and vocabulary so learning is reinforced.” Science teachers at East have also met with teachers from the three feeder middle schools. “It’s astounding to realize how little we know about what they teach and vice versa,” notes Eide. Alesha Yahr, a member of Madison Memorial’s mathematics vertical team, echoes this sentiment. “We got some surprises when we found out how much the middle school teachers were covering with the students. When you actually see what is being taught, it ends the blame game.”

The positive effects of the vertical team approach is summed up by Phil Manske, “This project has been very beneficial to River Valley High School, and specifically to our math department. It has matured our staff and given them vision. This is one of the best things that I have been a part of in my 25 years of teaching.” The vertical teams supported by the NGA grant are one of the lasting outcomes of the project. Many of the partner schools have expanded beyond the science and math teams they originally established and added teams in English/language arts, social studies, and world languages. Districts across the state who were not part of the pilot project have adopted this approach to promote equity and excellence. If you are interested in more information about vertical teams and how they can benefit your district, please contact Chrystyna Mursky, Consultant for Gifted & Talented and Advanced Placement at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Her phone is 608-267-9273 or click here to e-mail Chrys.

For questions about this information, contact Chrystyna V. Mursky (608) 267-9273

Last updated on 7/22/2008 9:35:14 AM