Tulsa, OK - Tulsa Public Schools has learned it will receive nearly $3 million for programs to help more students graduate and prepare for college.

The Advanced Placement Incentive grant from the U.S. Department of Education will provide $1 million per year to help fund TPS’ “Reach, Rise and Achieve” Project, a comprehensive initiative to increase Advanced Placement (AP) program participation in 23 high poverty schools.

The program will impact students at eight high schools and 15 middle schools by increasing student readiness for AP coursework in English, math and science; increasing enrollment in AP coursework; and improving student performance on AP exams.

Reach, Rise and Achieve will improve students’ skills in reading comprehension, writing, critical
thinking, organizational and study skills while improving teachers’ instructional skills in these
key areas.

TPS will use the nationally recognized Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, Laying the Foundation, and College Board’s AP Professional Summer Institutes as its three pronged strategy for implementing this initiative. AVID will allow TPS to better reach, support and prepare underserved students for AP coursework through intensive professional development and proven programming.

Students at Tulsa Community College and other colleges and universities will serve as college tutors and mentors for AVID students—a key component of the AVID program. Laying the Foundation will provide TPS teachers with
professional development in pre AP strategies as well as instruction on how to develop and implement comprehensive English, math and science curriculum specially designed and sequenced for later success in AP and college level coursework.

The project’s goal is to increase enrollment in AP English, math and science courses by 10 percent annually and 15 percent annually for low-income and minority students. The project will provide high school students greater access to AP courses through an online instructional Virtual High School so that all TPS high school students will have access to AP coursework in Biology, Calculus AB and BC, Computer Science A, English Language and Composition, English Literature and Composition, Environmental Science, Physics B & C, and Statistics.

At present, AP course availability is limited at some high schools because of insufficient staffing or because an
insufficient number of students enroll in the classes.

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