Va. Gets Advanced-Placement Grant

By Pamela Stallsmith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

Aug. 30–Virginia became the recipient yesterday of a $13.2 million grant to help increase the number of students taking Advanced Placement exams in math, science and English.

The National Math and Science Initiative’s Advanced Placement training and incentive program is funded through a $125 million gift from Exxon Mobil Corp., with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

Dozens of superintendents, business leaders and lawmakers filled a conference room in the Patrick Henry Building near the office of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to hear that Virginia is among seven states to receive the first grants from the initiative. The states competed to receive the money, which will come over the next six years.

The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center in South Boston led the application process. It has created a nonprofit organization, Virginia Advanced Study Strategies Inc., which will run the program.

It’s a statewide grant, but it will focus initially on schools that offer few, if any, AP courses. Many of those under-served schools are in rural areas, such as economically distressed Southside and Southwest Virginia. The city of Richmond will also be included.

The grant will allow for extensive training of teachers, who will work with students and prepare them for the AP tests, which allow students to qualify for college credit. It will also provide for financial incentives based on academic results.

This year, nearly 50,000 Virginia public high school students took at least one AP exam, an 11.3 percent increase over the previous year. The number of AP tests taken by public high school students increased nearly 12 percent to 90,198.

In our increasingly global economy, educators and lawmakers emphasized yesterday that it’s critical for Americans to be especially strong in math and science. And to do well in those subjects, students need a mastery of English.

It’s no longer about competence, Kaine said, but excellence.

“We’ve got to expand access to these high quality excellence courses that enable our students to succeed,” he said.

Ted Bennett, a former Democratic delegate from Halifax County in Southside and now the executive director of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, said the grant will open doors to many students.

Bennett quoted Will Rogers, whom he called his favorite economist: “‘In good times and bad, there ain’t nothing like cash.’” I cannot tell you what I believe this initiative . . . will do to rural areas.”

Earlier yesterday, Kaine hosted a meeting of a committee of the Southern Regional Education Board that is studying ways to improve reading and writing in middle and high schools.

The 27-member committee, which Kaine is chairing, includes lawmakers and educators from across the South, as well as State Superintendent of Public Instruction Billy K. Cannaday Jr. and Mark E. Emblidge, president of the state Board of Education.

In an interview, Cannaday said the topic resonated with him because he would like to see an increased focus on content literacy in middle and high schools.

“It’s not learning to read; it’s reading to learn,” he said.

Staff writer Olympia Meola contributed to this report.

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