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Alabama Voices: MLK would have been AP student
Alabama Voices: MLK would have been AP student
January 14, 2012
By Caroline Novak
In just a few days, children across the country will celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King’s “March on Washington” nearly fifty years ago under the theme of “jobs and freedom” signified an important step in the long uphill climb for minority students, toward freedom through education. As U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, "Freedom is the ability to think and to pursue your own path—and only education can give you that freedom."
This year there are 4,000 African-American students in Alabama who are now able to take the path toward freedom by enrolling in rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) courses.
In the early years of Advanced Placement, participants were largely male and primarily students from private prep schools and elite public schools. And no wonder, the idea for the program emerged from elite colleges, prep schools, and high schools as a way of accelerating and fortifying the education of the nation’s future leaders in anticipation of Cold War national-security demands.
But no longer are we, as a nation, underestimating the intellectual capacity and commitment to success of students from far less-privileged upbringings. We have learned our lesson through leaders like Dr. King, who was such a precocious student he skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered Morehouse Collegeat age fifteen.
We are surrounded by other examples from today’s generation of students, such as Rudy Davis, a sophomore at Auburn University majoring in Biomedical Sciences. Rudy was raised by a single mom who worked two jobs to support the family. Rudy was a high school sophomore when his school was chosen to receive funding to expand the AP program. Before that year, his school didn’t offer much in the way of AP courses for its students. With 56 percent of the largely African-American student body living at or below poverty level, the school - and its students - never had the resources to make the most of the College Board’s AP program. But all of that changed when his school district agreed to aggressively open the doors of AP to far more students who had not previously had the opportunity to participate.
In the first year of the program... Read More...
ABPC Mentioned in National Newsletter
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01-14-2012 Comments
Alabama Voices: MLK would have been AP student
January 14, 2012
By Caroline Novak
In just a few days, children across the country will celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King’s “March on Washington” nearly fifty years ago under the theme of “jobs and freedom” signified an important step in the long uphill climb for minority students, toward freedom through education. As U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, "Freedom is the ability to think and to pursue your own path—and only education can give you that freedom."
This year there are 4,000 African-American students in Alabama who are now able to take the path toward freedom by enrolling in rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) courses.
In the early years of Advanced Placement, participants were largely male and primarily students from private prep schools and elite public schools. And no wonder, the idea for the program emerged from elite colleges, prep schools, and high schools as a way of accelerating and fortifying the education of the nation’s future leaders in anticipation of Cold War national-security demands.
But no longer are we, as a nation, underestimating the intellectual capacity and commitment to success of students from far less-privileged upbringings. We have learned our lesson through leaders like Dr. King, who was such a precocious student he skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered Morehouse Collegeat age fifteen.
We are surrounded by other examples from today’s generation of students, such as Rudy Davis, a sophomore at Auburn University majoring in Biomedical Sciences. Rudy was raised by a single mom who worked two jobs to support the family. Rudy was a high school sophomore when his school was chosen to receive funding to expand the AP program. Before that year, his school didn’t offer much in the way of AP courses for its students. With 56 percent of the largely African-American student body living at or below poverty level, the school - and its students - never had the resources to make the most of the College Board’s AP program. But all of that changed when his school district agreed to aggressively open the doors of AP to far more students who had not previously had the opportunity to participate.
In the first year of the program... Read More...
12-14-2011 Comments
Look for the Alabama Best Practices Center in the "Stories of Use" section in this newsletter.
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12-09-2011 Comments
Sometimes it is the unexpected that becomes the most memorable. As a member of the Learning Forward Conference Program Planning Committee, my heart sank when I heard that one of the keynote speakers had cancelled the afternoon before the scheduled speech.
But, the next thing I learned was that Marcia Tate had agreed to be the back-up keynote and we had nothing to worry about. Thinking back, that was the biggest understatement of the conference.
Marcia Tate not only received a standing ovation, but she had the 2,000 or so people in audience up and dancing during her presentation!
And, here’s the best part for those of us married to noneducators: her message is transferrable!
Marcia Tate is the former executive director of professional development for the DeKalb County (Decatur, GA) school system. She is the author of several books including Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites: 20 Instructional Strategies That Engage the Brain. Her latest book is Preparing Children for Success in School and Life: 20 Ways to Enhance Your Child’s Brain Power.
Tate likes lists of 20s, so her keynote was organized around 20 Strategies that Engage the Adult Brain. The list follows. I wish my fingers could have moved faster to catch all that she was saying, but I did get the highlights: Read More...
But, the next thing I learned was that Marcia Tate had agreed to be the back-up keynote and we had nothing to worry about. Thinking back, that was the biggest understatement of the conference.
Marcia Tate not only received a standing ovation, but she had the 2,000 or so people in audience up and dancing during her presentation!
And, here’s the best part for those of us married to noneducators: her message is transferrable!
Marcia Tate is the former executive director of professional development for the DeKalb County (Decatur, GA) school system. She is the author of several books including Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites: 20 Instructional Strategies That Engage the Brain. Her latest book is Preparing Children for Success in School and Life: 20 Ways to Enhance Your Child’s Brain Power.
Tate likes lists of 20s, so her keynote was organized around 20 Strategies that Engage the Adult Brain. The list follows. I wish my fingers could have moved faster to catch all that she was saying, but I did get the highlights: Read More...
