AP Anywhere: Online Advanced Placement Courses Give Underserved Overachievers a Chance to Expand Their Educational Horizons (and Save on College)

An Advanced Placement course could mean the difference between getting into an Ivy League college or settling for something less, between offering students a bright future or stifling their potential. Yet many students attend high schools where AP courses are either not available or in very short supply. need is particularly dire in rural and urban school districts where advanced expertise and financial resources are limited. At the same time, demand for AP courses is growing, with nearly one-third of US public high school students taking an AP exam at some point in high school, according to the Maryland-based College Board, which manages the national AP program. demand is fueled by competitive college admission requirements, rising college costs, and a complex global economy that requires a more intellectually sophisticated workforce. So how can states and school districts expand AP access to all students, regardless of geography or socioeconomic circumstances? Many are turning to online AP courses to level the playing field. An Advancing Trend [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 2011, only about 0.5 percent of AP classes were completed online, according to a Wall Street Journal However, the number of online courses is growing. Many students are accessing the services through online schools now available in 27 states. Florida Virtual School, for example, is state-sponsored and offers free AP classes to residents. Others, like Idaho Digital Learning Academy. Colorado Online Learning, and Illinois Virtual School, charge from $75 to $250 per class. Some schools and districts are also forming district consortia to provide AP and other online courses. (See Going the on page 48 for an example.) Capitol Education Council (CREC) is one of six Regional Educational Service Centers in the state of Connecticut. offers AP online courses to 35 school districts in the Hartford area through the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium. consortium contracts with the nonprofit Virtual High School to provide member districts with online instruction. Districts can enroll directly with VHS, but the consortium allows them to receive the company's 18 AP courses at a discounted price. worked very well for us, end we're looking to extend it even further as more children come on board with online learning, says Gio Koch, recruitment coordinator for CREC. It really gives students a 21st century experience. It's laid out like a college course so they get that experience on a high school level. Many schools also offer AP classes through private companies like Apex Learning and Aventa Learning, whose parent company is K12 Inc. With the budget impact and constrained resources, we've seen an increase in demand for providing AP courses in both blended and virtual environments to meet student needs, says Apex spokeswoman Teri Citterman. The use of online AP courses has held a steady, upward trend for more than 10 years. Districts can enroll students in individual Apex Learning courses for $200 per student, with unlimited course enrollments. Districts or parents can also enroll students in a full-time virtual school called Apex Learning High School for $350 per semester course. Aventa also offers a range of choices from full-time programs to single classes, which vary in price depending on the number of enrollments and the degree of hosting, instruction, and training required. David Pelizzari, vice president of content and curriculum at K12, says that his recent analysis of Aventa's AP Chemistry courses showed a fivefold enrollment increase compared to 2011-2012--and that's just one course. Our AP offering targets exactly the same student demographic as that in conventional brick-and-mortar schools, with one happy twist, he says. Because of our virtual way of getting the courses to the students, we can target 'AP loners' (so to speak) who are single students, or small clusters of students, who might not have sufficient numbers in a conventional brick-and-mortar school to justify the school offering of an AP curriculum. …