Advanced Placement Action Community

Mass Insight is excited to announce the launch of our Advanced Placement (AP) Action Community, a new collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  The Action Community will leverage Mass Insight’s experience and techniques to produce public goods that will help the field scale evidence-based interventions designed to improve AP participation and success among Black, Latino, and low-income students.

In partnership with a group of 5-7 high-need high schools in the New England region, the Action Community will promote continuous improvement around Advanced Placement and field test public goods focused on: 

Conditions: Helping districts and schools set the right conditions for increased enrollment and success in Advanced Placement courses for Black, Latino, and low-income students through the development of an Advanced Placement self-assessment diagnostic tool.  

Preparation: Increasing the academic preparation of Black, Latino, and low-income students in 10th grade threshold courses prior to Advanced Placement. Threshold courses may include Algebra II, Geometry, English 10, Biology, and Chemistry.  

Participation: Increasing the proportion of Black, Latino, and low-income students who enroll in AP STEM & English classes.

Performance: Increasing the proportion of Black, Latino, and low-income students who receive qualifying AP exam scores.  

Along with our Action Community partner schools/districts and a group of college readiness experts, we will engage in cycles of continuous improvement to field test evidence-based strategies, distill what strategies work, for whom and under what conditions, and package them into public goods that we will disseminate and make available to the public at large.The goal of the AP Action Community is to develop public goods that more school districts can use to expand college access and success to underserved students through AP courses. We know from the research that students who take AP classes are more likely to graduate from college. This program will help equip high schools with tools to support students’ access and success in AP classes, leading to greater equity in college attainment.