With STEM jobs on the rise more than ever before, the push for more AP math and science courses is coming at the right time. Just last year, the U.S. Commerce Department predicted that STEM jobs will grow by 17 percent between 2008 and 2018, compared with just under 10 percent for others.
Recent studies point out the pitfalls in STEM classrooms It's been suggested that U.S. students' match and science skills are slowly growing: in 2011, just 35 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in math and 32 percent in science, according to the U.S. Education Department's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Another downer: last year, Achieve, made up of business and government officials, found that a mere 20 states (yes, not even half of them) and the District of Columbia required students to complete a "college-and-career-ready" curriculum to earn a diploma.
More schools need to make Woodside their example. With AP courses open to all students regardless of grade-point average, students recruited heavily and trained after school, Woodside treats AP like a sports team. Since many students don't know what AP is or think it's for the valedictorians of the class, this approach can be very effective.
Woodside also picks up the cost of the annual exams, making it hard for students to drop the AP courses once they're enrolled. If a student persists, both teachers' and parents' signatures are required for the drop, allowed only after a student attends three tutoring classes. Even then, parents have to meet with a counselor to approve the withdrawal. As you can imagine, it rarely gets that far.
So here's the proof, people. The result of this approach is a 75 percent rise since 2006 in the number of students taking advanced math and science. Higher percentages of students in AP classes can only lead to one good thing: student success (even if your students don't score the highest on the AP exams). Read more about Woodside's AP approach.
