Minority Students Who Score High on Advanced Placement Tests

Applying to College
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<p>Minority Students Who Score High on Advanced Placement Tests</p>

<p>Studies from The College Board show that black high school students are far less likely to take honors and advanced placement courses which would better prepare them for college entrance examinations and for the rigors of a college curriculum. Now the Pershing Square Foundation is trying a new approach to encourage black and other minority students to take these challenging courses.</p>

<p>Students at 25 predominantly black or Hispanic high schools and six parochial schools with large numbers of minority students in New York City have been selected for a pilot program which will give cash awards to students who perform well on Advanced Placement examinations. A student who receives the best possible score of 5 on an AP test will receive $1,000. A score of 4 will generate a cash award of $750 and a score of 3 will produce a $500 reward. Students can take several AP examinations in any given year and cash awards can be won on each test. (Foreign language AP examinations are excluded because, for some students, English is not their first language.)</p>

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<p>Interesting article. What do you guys think? And please no AA debates. I believe there is already a thread going about AA.</p>

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<p>I think it's a nice incentive and will surely raise the numbder of minority students at those school who take AP tests. But they can't continure to offer such large cash sums forever, and I suspect the number of minorities taking it might drop once the money is rescinded.</p>

<p>HOWEVER- I wish they had that at my school! I would have signed up for every AP class offered!</p>

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<p>Last year I read about a similiar program in place somewhere in Texas. The program was being hailed as a great success.</p>

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<p>I don't get it. Why wouldn't you offer scholarship incentives instead of just cash?</p>

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<p>Maybe they can.. perhaps Collegeboard could get involved, and we all know they must be loaded due to the crazy amount of money they charge for stuff lol..(why do we have to PAY to fill out CSS/Profile?!)
But i also think it is a great idea. More minorities will enroll in exams, study for the national exam, and become more prepared for college. I live in GA, and there are only 2-3 black kids (including me) in my AP classes, but my school is like 40% black. Implementing a program like this one would definitely motivate more minorities to take AP classes.</p>

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<p>that is an amazing deal. like threedaysgrace, my pre-ap and ap classes only have a couple of minorities in them with myself included. i wish they had that program in my school</p>

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<p>i wish they had that at my school...</p>

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<p>I wish they had a program like that for white boys everywhere. :-P</p>

<p>I'm not sure how much success it will have, though. The research I've read suggests that even though more minorities may be taking APs due to outreach efforts, less, proportionally, are getting passing grades.</p>

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<p>Wow if they had that at my school I could win like 7k this year haha.</p>