LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Researchers say an eight-year effort to enroll more high school students in advanced placement classes is paying off — regardless of how students do on end-of-year exams.
The Arkansas Research Center at the University of Central Arkansas says students targeted for AP enrollment in 2008 are earning $4,000 more on average than students who didn't take advanced classes in math, science or English.
Earnings are higher even for those students who didn't earn scores that qualified them for college credit.
The Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science paid $12,500 for the study, using grant money from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
The group, known as AIMS, supports AP classes in more than four dozen districts statewide. Other Arkansas districts offer AP course work that can be converted into college credits.