2 Blended Learning. 3 IPR s. 4 AP Success Stories. 7 AP Student Focus Groups. Regional Reader Volume 2, Issue

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1 Regional Reader Volume 2, Issue Welcome to the Fall 2011 Regional Reader, a publication from the Wisconsin Advanced Placement Advisory Council (WAPAC). The mission of WAPAC s Regional Reader is to share important Advanced Placement (AP) information and experiences with students, educators, and parents. The Wisconsin Advanced Placement Advisory Council (WAPAC) is comprised of about 15 educators across Wisconsin from the secondary and collegiate levels. WAPAC members are dedicated to expanding access to AP coursework and rigorous learning for all college bound students. This edition of the Regional Reader will include Wisconsin Virtual School developing new Blended Learning AP programs in Algoma, An introduction on how to use Advanced Placement Instructional Planning Reports (part 1 of a 2 part series), Stories on AP student success from across the state, and some insights from the DPI on AP student focus groups. Please pass this newsletter on to colleagues, parents, school board, and community members to illustrate how AP dramatically empowers college bound students. Ultimately, the Council would like to invite you to share stories and best practices regarding AP to be included in the WAPAC newsletter. k12.wi.us. Respectfully Submitted, Jim Bokern WAPAC Chairperson 2 Blended Learning How does blended instruction work? It seems the answer is any way you need it to. 3 IPR s Instructional Planning Reports (IPR s) are one of the greatest data analysis sources for AP teachers but are often over looked. 4 AP Success Stories In technological world of instant messages and texting, the importance of access and accessibility to Advanced Placement classes is best shared through student experiences. 7 AP Student Focus Groups Middle and high school students provide insight into how to increase access to and success in AP courses.

2 WVS Blended Learning - The Algoma Story How does blended instruction work? It seems the answer is any way you need it to. Algoma High School, in partnership with WVS, offers blended instruction in Physics, AP Physics B and AP Chemistry. The best practice for instruction has ranged from completely self-paced with real-time tutoring and teacher support to teaching lessons live followed by the use of online content for review and assessment. In the school year, four Algoma students were enrolled in a WVS Physics/AP Physics B course taught by a live instructor. The course began using exclusively online content with the instructor available for oneon-one student support as needed. Students interacted with the online content and received tutoring and feedback before and after major assessments. This evolved during the semester to allow some labs to be completed and discussed in a group setting with the instructor. Finally, as more challenging material emerged in the second semester, the students and instructor used the regular classroom to introduce new concepts, preview important equations and work through typical problems. This was followed by using the online course material to reinforce ideas, give problem-solving practice and complete assessments. For this school year, a new challenge has enrolled in Physics or AP Chemistry (there were no AP Physics B enrollments) were unable to take the class during a single scheduled period. To accommodate these students, this year s model has swung back to self-paced. The instructor is available to work exclusively with the students during one class period and is on site and available to the students throughout the day for questions or to set up a special tutoring session at a later time. The online course content includes a web-conferencing tool, so these tutoring sessions can be recorded and uploaded into the course to help other students. Since Algoma School District can offer two (or more) online classes during the same period this small district with a high school enrollment of 210 can continue to offer college-prep and AP courses taught by the same instructor even when enrollment in these courses is low. In Algoma s case, the instructor is also contracted through WVS to accept enrollments throughout the state. For each enrollment the district receives the instructor portion of the online fee. These funds can then be used to offer more Algoma students the opportunity to take online courses through WVS. Online courses can be challenging for students. The blended model offers more structure for the students with daily opportunities to ask questions of a face-to-face instructor. Blended instruction offers the teacher a chance to get real-time feedback about the challenging content in the course. This feedback helps the instructor prepare additional instruction for all students in the online environment. The available to facilitate or teach multiple courses. the teacher and district continue to offer quality college-prep and AP courses to all students. Annette Walaszek Algoma High School Science Teacher awalaszek@alghs.k12.wi.us 2

3 Instructional Planning Reports Illustrate the powerful impact AP has on perfermance and graduation rates. Instructional Planning Reports (IPR s) are one of the greatest data analysis sources for AP teachers but are often over looked. With new updates from online score reporting both teachers and administrators can access this impressive source for data easily. This article will introduce teachers to the IPR s basics and some how to interpret results to make instructional adjustments. The next issue of the regional reader will share how educators can use IPR s for disaggregating student data and action research. Instructional Planning Reports are provided free to all schools participating in the AP program. These reports provide a broad spectrum of data for educators to analyze and, when combined with current research, illustrate the powerful impact AP has on college performance and collegiate graduation rates. The AP Instructional Planning Report is now released in July online. AP teachers can use these reports to analyze both the subjective/free response results and objective/multiple choice performance. Instructional Planning Reports disaggregate AP performance data for each AP course. Detailed breakdowns of multiple choice and subjective essays student learning. Logically, this data can provide insight into instructional adjustments by AP teachers and colleagues who teach the skills and content in earlier courses. The IPR can be the glue that holds a vertical team or Professional Learning Community together. Providing key data points to reach the SMART Goal or common mission collaborative educators. With July data release for IPR s teachers can meet before school starts during in service to set instructional strategies and participate in action research. Cont. on page

4 ...From page 3 The Next Regional Reader will include a follow-up article on IPR s demonstrating how to customize AP IPR s. From my experience of working with testing, only the AP IPR s provided educators the powerful school needs precisely. With online access teachers and administrators can easily use AP data reports to analyze strengths and weakness in student learning year after year. Importantly, as Wisconsin s assessment models shift from the WKCE to more rigorous assessment AP IPR s can be a powerful tool for improving student learning. Success Stories Two WAPAC members, Jim Bokern and Jon Oestreich, share AP students stories that chronicle student empowerment through Advanced Placement. AP Student Graduating in 3 years from the University of Minnesota Advanced Placement Student s Increased Access and Accessibility Through Online Learning Access and accessibility to Advanced Placements (AP) courses for high school students is critical to their post-k-12 educational success. In a reality of declining budgets one option to improve equal access and accessibility to AP classes is through online AP courses for example, Wisconsin Virtual School ( Wisconsin Public Instruction approved online education provider based out of Cooperative Educational Services Agency (CESA) #9 in Tomahawk, WI. AP classes strengthen high school student skills necessary for success in post-k-12 education while potentially saving thousands of dollars in student tuition. In technological world of instant messages and texting, the importance of access and accessibility to Advanced Placement classes is best shared through student experiences. Following are two examples of typical online student feedback. feedback from a former AP United States History student: 4

5 ...From page 4 feedback from a former 2010 spring term AP Psychology student: WVS Students Stand Out The data below illustrates the success of AP students at WVS in 2009 and 2010 as compared to National and State averages. AP Psychology National WI WiVS National WI WiVS 147,708 5, Number of Students 177,708 6, % 80.5% 100% 3 or Higher 66.2% 79.2% 92% Mean Grade

6 ...From page 5 AP US History National WI WiVS National WI WiVS 360,173 5,400 5 Number of Students 387,416 5, % 62.1% 60% 3 or Higher 52.6% 62% 80% Mean Grade Data obtained from: 1. Summary reports: (2010). Retrieved from 2. Summary reports: (2010). Retrieved from 3. Oestreich, J. (2010). Announcements: college board exam results. Retrieved from 6

7 AP Student Focus Groups Middle and high school students provide insight into how to increase access to and success in AP courses As part of the 3-year Advanced Placement Incentive Program grant awarded to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, students from partner schools participated in focus groups. Fifty-two middle school students and twenty-seven high school students, most of them juniors, completed a mini-survey and talked with facilitators about Advanced Placement (AP) and other issues related to studying and school. The information gleaned from these conversations will be used to help shape decisions about increasing access to and success in AP courses and exams. This article will highlight some of the lessons learned from these focus groups, beginning with middle school and then moving to high school. Participants were asked if they have ever heard of AP courses. Thirty-six middle school students responded, Yes, nine responded, No, and six answered, Don t know. Those who responded, Yes, were asked to indicate how they had heard of AP courses. Their responses are summarized in Table 1. The importance of including multiple sources of information to get the word out is evident. Students were also asked, Do you have plans for what you will do after you graduate from high school? Forty-two students out of the 52 answered, Yes. Of these, 37 planned on going on to college, while 1 each responded: employment, civil service job, military, college and military, entrepreneurship, and sports or science. Middle School Focus Groups Questions that the middle school participants had that might help us understand what type of information we should be making available include: What is AP? What subjects are they in? What types of things will I learn? How do you get into AP courses? How do I qualify? Do the courses cost money? Are they offered at a local school? Table 1 What grade do I take them in? How many are you allowed to take in one year? What does AP do for me? What are the If an AP class is too hard, can I go back to the normal class? 7

8 High School Focus Groups High school students were asked many of the same questions as the middle school students. All 27 participants indicated that they had heard of AP courses. Table 2 summarizes where they got their information from. Note the shift in the importance of friends and parent/guardian from the middle school years. About half of the participants were enrolled in AP courses at the time the focus groups were held. All participants were asked, What kind of help do you think students need in order to get a good grade in an AP course? Student answers included: taking an Advanced Placement course A good understanding of what s expected Teacher help Study groups Other students that have previously taken the exam Practice materials Motivation Organization and good note taking skills Time to review Time management skills High expectations from teachers The responses underscore three themes: 1) The importance of providing background information on AP courses;; 2) The value of both teacher and peer support;; and 3) The strong role of study skills and habits of mind. These lessons may help school district focus key steps in building and improving AP programs. 8

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