By Stan Diel
June 10, 2010
Ninety high school students from Birmingham and Jefferson County Schools will have a leg up on the competition when they begin Advanced Placement classes in the fall.
The students this week began an intensive three-week tutorial on college-level calculus, biology and chemistry as part of a new program run by ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit organization that provides service opportunities for college students.
Students from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, theUniversityofAlabamaand Birmingham Southern College are teaching the classes, which include hands-on time at laboratories at UAB.
Program founder Stephen Black, who is director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at theUniversityofAlabama, said students who complete a single Advanced Placement class in high school are three times more likely to succeed in college, so the new CollegeFirst program is expected to have an immediate impact.
“If you give these kids a path to excellence, they’ll take it,” Black said.
The program, which is free to the high school students, is financed by a $50,000 grant from the Birmingham law firm Maynard, Cooper & Gale and by state and federal assistance.
Birmingham and Jefferson County Schools have greatly expanded their Advanced Placement class offerings over the past year or two, and teachers told ImpactAlabamaadministrators that many students weren’t prepared for the difficult curriculum, said Sarah Louise Smith, executive director of Impact Alabama.
Students’ progress in the classes will be monitored through the use of diagnostic tests, she said, and the expectation is that this fall the students will be much better prepared.
Tia Jenkins, a 16-year-old who will be a junior atWenonahHigh Schoolthis fall, said she jumped at the chance to take the chemistry program. She plans to go to college and major in business administration, and hopes to one day find herself running a bio-technology company.
“No,” she corrected, “I will be running it.”
Participating students were selected through A+ College Ready, a statewide initiative to improve success in AP classes.Alabamalags behind the nation when it comes to AP classes. Nationally, 15.2 percent of public school students from the high school class of 2008 passed an AP exam, compared with 6.8 percent inAlabama, according to ImpactAlabama.
