Amid the bleak data on high school seniors’ college readiness (or lack thereof) is a bright spot: more than 70 high schools across Massachusetts are closing the college success achievement gap among underserved and low-income students through a STEM/College Success partnership with Mass Insight Education.
The program is designed to dramatically increase student participation and performance in Advanced Placement (AP) math, science, and English courses with the end goal of increasing student attendance and persistence in college. And it’s working. Among our report’s highlights:
- Students at Mass Insight schools are three times more likely to enroll in an AP course than their counterparts in high schools with similar demographics;
- 86 percent of Mass Insight students who graduated from high school through 2011 persisted from their first year to their second year in college; and
- Of Mass Insight’s low-income high school graduates, 85 percent persist in college.
- Almost a quarter of the low-income students in the program would likely have been screened out of taking an AP course in a traditional high school AP program – and yet those students are enrolled and persisting in college at rates higher than state averages.
See our full report for more information, and click here for highlights from an event at the Massachusetts State House to release the report.