Human Services News

Expanding the Advanced Placement Incentive Program -- February 2006

Expanding access to advanced placement programs would provide more disadvantaged high school students the opportunity to take challenging courses so that they will enter college or the global marketplace ready to excel.

America remains the most innovative and creative nation on earth---but other nations and their students are catching up fast, especially in the future-friendly fields of mathematics and science.

American 15-year-olds ranked 24th out of 29 developed nations in mathematics literacy and problem-solving on the most recent Program for International Student Assessment [PISA] test.

While only 44 % of U.S. high school students studied a foreign language in 2002, learning a second or third foreign language is compulsory for students in the European Union and elsewhere.

More than 200 million children in China study English---while only 24,000 elementary and secondary school children in the U.S. study Chinese.

To remain a global leader in this highly competitive world, U.S. colleges and universities need freshmen students ready to learn math and science from day one.

And U.S. employers, whether filling "white collar" or "blue collar" positions, need workers with "pocket-protector" skills---practical problem-solvers fluent in today's technology.

90 % of the fastest-growing jobs will require some post-secondary education.

If current trends continue, by 2012 over 40 % of factory jobs will require postsecondary education.

Fewer than half of high school graduates in 2005 were ready for college-level math and science courses.

Our high schools must prepare graduates to compete and succeed in the workforce or higher education.

As part of the new American Competitiveness Initiative, and to strengthen high schools and prepare students for college or the workforce, President Bush and Secretary Spellings are committed to expanding Advanced Placement-International Baccalaureate (AP-IB) programs.

For example, a State receiving the AP Incentive grant could implement a program in which one-third of funding is from the Federal government, one-third is from the State, and one-third is from foundations or the business community.