This spring, WA walked away from a six-year $13.2 million grant to add and strengthen Advanced Placement (AP) math and science courses sponsored by the public-private National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI).

Six other states accepted the NMSI grants—Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Virginia. The emerging results suggest that WA missed out on a promising program. In the six NMSI states, AP enrollment increased over 50 percent as the number of students taking AP courses soared from 8,000 to 13,000 in just one year. Using the NMSI grants, the six states also tutored over 13,000 AP students and trained nearly 3000 teachers and teacher leaders on how to deliver high-quality instruction in AP courses.

“Why did we leave money for public schools on the table?” you might sensibly ask in a state that ranks 43rd in the nation for per pupil spending. The short answer: Local negotiations with NMSI broke down due issues with merit pay for teachers. Roughly 22 percent of the grant ($2.9M) would have paid teachers for voluntarily taking part in training to improve AP instruction and rewarded those teachers who helped their students succeed in AP classes. The remaining 88 percent of the grant ($10.1M ) covered the costs to train new and current AP teachers and provide tutoring to AP students.

Now, you might ask, “Do Washington students really need great AP courses?” Consider the following:

• AP courses increase college readiness and graduation rates. Students passing AP courses are three times more likely to earn a college degree than other students. African-Americans and Hispanics who pass an AP exam are four times more likely to graduate from college. Even young people who go to work directly after high school find they need the same skills to succeed on-the-job as college-bound students.
• AP students in the US are more competitive internationally. US AP calculus and AP physics students rank at or near the top of performance on math and science tests given to students around the world, while non-AP students in the US rank at or near the bottom. Our young people need the critical thinking skills fostered by rigorous courses, like AP, to effectively compete in today’s global economy.

In the spirit of trying to learn from effective approaches to accelerating math and science achievement, we will continue to track student outcomes in the NMSI states and push for more effective negotiations in the future. More information can be found at www.nationalmathandscience.org.