| FOR RELEASE: March 17, 2008 |
Contact: David Thomas (202) 401-1579 |
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced the award of $11 million in grants to 39 states to help them pay the fees for advanced placement tests for low-income students.
The department makes awards to state educational agencies to enable them to cover part or all of the test fees for low-income students who are enrolled in an Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) class and plan to take an AP or IB test. The program aims to encourage low income students to take AP or IB tests and obtain college credit for high school courses, reducing the time and cost required to complete a postsecondary degree.
"These grants will help more low-income students take advantage of the rigorous coursework they need to succeed in college and the workforce," Spellings said. The grants also complement the President's fiscal year 2009 budget request to increase funding for Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs to $70 million, in order to help prepare more educators to teach these challenging classes and encourage more students from high-need schools to take and pass AP courses and tests.
Awards may be used only to support AP test fees for low-income students. Tests administered by the College Board and the International Baccalaureate Organization are covered.
Traditionally, 11th- and 12th-graders take an AP exam after completing the corresponding AP course. However, participation in an exam is open to any student regardless of course participation or grade level.
In the U.S., more than 90 percent of colleges and universities have a policy of granting incoming students credit, placement, or both, for qualifying AP test scores.
A list of Advanced Placement Test Fee Program grantees follows:
| AL, | Montgomery, | Alabama Department of Education, | $63,114 |
| AK, | Juneau, | Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, | $11,648 |
| AZ, | Phoenix, | Arizona Department of Education, | $325,825 |
| CA, | Sacramento, | California Department of Education, | $3,507,966 |
| CO, | Denver, | Colorado Department of Education, | $178,860 |
| CT, | Hartford, | Connecticut Department of Education, | $191,345 |
| DE, | Dover, | Delaware Department of Education, | $27,446 |
| HI, | Honolulu, | Hawaii Department of Education, | $31,276 |
| IA, | Des Moines, | Iowa Department of Education, | $27,648 |
| ID, | Boise, | Idaho State Board of Education, | $32,249 |
| IL, | Springfield, | Illinois State Board of Education, | $945,454 |
| IN, | Indianapolis, | Indiana Department of Education, | $124,560 |
| KS, | Topeka, | Kansas State Department of Education, | $32,588 |
| KY, | Frankfort, | Kentucky Department of Education, | $146,274 |
| LA, | Baton Rouge, | Louisiana Department of Education, | $37,294 |
| MA, | Malden, | Massachusetts Department of Education, | $201,466 |
| MD, | Baltimore, | Maryland Department of Education, | $345,852 |
| ME, | Augusta, | Maine Department of Education, | $42,520 |
| MI, | Lansing, | Michigan Department of Education, | $61,700 |
| MS, | Jackson, | Mississippi Department of Education, | $144,300 |
| MT, | Helena, | Montana Office of Public Instruction, | $16,419 |
| MO, | Jefferson City, | Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, | $74,533 |
| NH, | Concord, | New Hampshire Department of Education, | $2,164 |
| NJ, | Trenton, | New Jersey State Department of Education, | $203,185 |
| NM, | Santa Fe, | New Mexico Public Education Department, | $80,244 |
| NY, | Albany, | New York State Education Department, | $1,603,693 |
| NC, | Raleigh, | North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, | $238,915 |
| OH, | Columbus, | Ohio Department of Education, | $124,861 |
| OR, | Salem, | Oregon Department of Education, | $247,653 |
| PA, | Harrisburg, | Pennsylvania Department of Education, | $196,610 |
| SD, | Pierre, | South Dakota Department of Education, | $10,461 |
| TN, | Nashville, | Tennessee Department of Education, | $129,799 |
| TX, | Austin, | Texas Education Agency, | $1,179,893 |
| UT, | Salt Lake City, | Utah State Office of Education, | $24,300 |
| VA, | Richmond, | Virginia Department of Education, | $181,044 |
| VT, | Montpelier, | Vermont Department of Education, | $24,203 |
| WA, | Olympia, | Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, | $291,042 |
| WV, | Charleston, | West Virginia Department of Education, | $25,552 |
| WY, | Cheyenne, | Wyoming Department of Education, | $2,655 |
###
 |
Back to March 2008 |
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
| |
||||||||||||
