New Initiative Brings World Class AP Course Instruction to Students from Rural Communities in Mississippi

STARKVILLE, Miss., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Global Teaching Project has announced the launch of a new initiative, The Mississippi Public School Consortium for Education Access, to provide Advanced Placement courses for underserved students, starting in seven rural Mississippi school districts that have extremely limited curricula for students with the potential for high academic achievement.

Across the U.S., students who have the ability and desire to succeed academically often live in areas where they do not have access to the higher-level courses they need to achieve their full potential. Enrollment in AP courses correlates strongly with college success, and access to high-quality AP courses increasingly separates the educational haves from the have-nots. The College Board estimates that 60 percent of U.S. high school students who have high potential to excel in AP science courses do not take any, largely because their schools lack qualified instructors to teach those subjects, and up to 25 percent of U.S. high schools do not offer more than one of the basic courses in the typical sequence of high school math and science education—such as Algebra I and II, Geometry, Biology, and Chemistry.

The new initiative, funded by a grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, is designed to change this by offering AP courses to students in underserved and rural districts, where shortages of qualified teachers—and high-level math and science courses—are most acute. The courses are taught by renowned instructors from leading educational institutions around the world, with support from faculty, staff, and students from Mississippi State, Jackson State, Yale, and Stanford, among others.  The Global Teaching Project also provides educational content and support.

"For today's students, demography should not determine destiny, and a student's circumstances should not be a factor to be able to access a high-quality education," said Harold Levy, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. "By providing students in rural communities with the opportunity to learn from some of the most respected subject-matter experts in the world, we're giving them the chance to achieve their full potential."

"Particularly for low-income students, a college degree is the surest path to opportunity and economic stability," said Governor Phil Bryant. "That opportunity, however, means access—and that's what the Mississippi Public School Consortium is providing—thanks to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation—through Advanced Placement courses." 

The first stage of the pilot launched the week of June 19, 2017, by implementing a residential program for participating students at Mississippi State University to help prepare them for a course that they will be taking in the Fall—AP Physics 1, taught by Professor Meg Urry, director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. The program is designed to help the students develop a foundation in math and science, as well as study skills that will be necessary to succeed in the course. Eventually, five AP courses will be implemented in the participating districts.

Media Contact: Matt Dolan, 202.255.9054/[email protected]

SOURCE Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

Related Links

http://www.jkcf.org