TUSD has been placed on the College Board’s annual AP District Honor Roll for its efforts to increase participation in Advanced Placement classes.
TUSD is one of three districts in the state to be recognized for increasing access overall, but especially for minority students, while maintaining or improving performance levels.
“A lot of these more rigorous classes are sink-or-swim type classes where you put them in and say ‘good luck,’ ” said Superintendent H.T. Sanchez. “But in our district that’s not what our teachers do, that’s not what our principals and our sites do. There’s a lot of support before, during and after students are in these courses.”
That support includes summer boot camps for students, training for staff and mentors and tutors on campus throughout the school year.
National data from 2015 show that among African-American, Hispanic, and Native American students with a high degree of readiness for AP, only about half are participating.
Of the Tucson Unified School District’s nearly 14,000 high school students, more than 40 percent are enrolled in an AP class. Minority students make up 55 percent of the AP population in TUSD.
“We know that a lot of people are fixated on AzMERIT and the state accountability system,” Sanchez said. “I’ve always felt if you want a true measure of high school excellence, you need to take a look at how many kids are in AP classes; you need to take a look at how many kids are scoring 3, 4s or 5s in those AP classes.”
While the recognition is big for a district that has long struggled with academic achievement, the real winners are students.
Depending on the subject matter, students who earn scores of 3 or higher on AP exams can receive college credit before stepping foot on a college campus.
“Not only is this something that is an honor for the students, it also saves them and their families dollars when it comes to college tuition because some students are able to graduate after scoring 3, 4s and 5s on multiple AP exams with more than half of their freshman year completed,” Sanchez said.
TUSD was selected based on three years of AP data from 2013 to present.
The district has been charged with increasing minority enrollment in advanced coursework under the terms of a decades-old desegregation case.
