AdvanceKentucky AP program posts more ‘wins’

Per the Madisonville Messenger (subscription or fee), you can add Hopkins County to the growing number of school systems in Kentucky that have greatly benefitted from the AdvanceKentucky program to provide better trained teachers and other incentives in Advanced Placement course offerings around the state.

The paper reports that the number of students in Hopkins County recording college credit qualifying AP scores of 3 or higher, which usually earns college credit, was 113 in 2011. That’s a considerable jump from the 37 students with qualifying scores in 2009.

At present, AdvanceKentucky serves 64 high schools throughout the state. We are hoping this outstandingly successful program, which accounted for an incredibly high proportion of all the AP course improvement in Kentucky last year, will soon add at least one high minority high school from Louisville.

So far, Kentucky’s largest school district has shunned this program, possibly because the teachers union there doesn’t like merit pay for teachers, and AdvanceKentucky rewards AP teachers with $100 for each student that gets a qualifying AP score. Let’s hope the adults in Louisville will soon let at least some of the students there have a chance to participate in a highly successful AP course initiative.