Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for EdSurge, Emily Tate explains how a change in the registration dates for Advanced Placement (AP) exams has led to an increase in low-income and underrepresented students taking the exams. 

· What other options do high schools offer for students to earn college credits? 

· Read more about Advanced Placement exams and whether they really help students


The College Board will soon allow high school students to register for Advanced Placement (AP) exams in the fall, rather than having them wait until spring—just before the exams are held.

It’s a simple, seemingly inconsequential change, but in both the small- and large-scale studies the nonprofit conducted in U.S. schools, the option to register in the fall led to more underrepresented and low-income students taking the AP exams.

The idea came straight from educators. More than half of U.S. schools that offer AP courses have set test registration dates earlier than the College Board’s deadline, often months earlier, and they’ve observed positive changes in who signs up.

“The level of idealism with which [the schools] described benefits of this simple switch felt far-fetched to me,” said Trevor Packer, senior vice president of the AP Program, during a press briefing on Tuesday.

But the College Board, a 119-year-old organization that also oversees the SAT, decided to give it a closer look anyway. After a small pilot showed promising results, the group launched a larger, nationally representative pilot of 800 U.S. schools serving 180,000 students this school year to understand the effects of fall registration.

Read the full article about equitable AP exams by Emily Tate at EdSurge.