The university and College Board plan to expand their partnership this year to better prepare low-income and underrepresented California high-school students for college.
The university’s Early Academic Outreach Program will have access to College Board resources, in particular to data from the Preliminary SAT. The outreach program will work with the College Board on its “All In” campaign, which encourages low-income black, Latino and American Indian students to take the PSAT and enroll in advanced classes.
The PSAT is a test usually administered to high school juniors that assesses skills in critical reading, mathematics and writing and serves as practice for the actual SAT.
Among other purposes, the College Board uses the PSAT to identify students who have the potential to succeed in certain Advanced Placement courses. University staff will now have the ability to distribute lists of these students with AP potential to counselors and educators.
“We know that when students have information about their potential, they tend to act on it,” said Yvette Gullatt, UC vice provost for education partnerships.
Only about 40 percent of Latino students who are determined by the College Board to have potential for success in AP science courses actually take one of these courses. That number is about 30 percent for black and American Indian students, according to Zach Goldberg, director of external communications for the College Board.
The goal of the campaign is getting these percentages up to 100 percent, Goldberg said.
“Unfortunately, not every student has the opportunity to access the same level and rigor of curriculum,” Gullatt said. “This is really our attempt to eliminate barriers that students face and make sure every student who should take AP can take AP.”
The university outreach program can provide staffing toward this goal, with people already working in more than 150 schools across California.
The university and College Board have had a longstanding relationship, but UC President Janet Napolitano made this an official partnership last year, Gullatt said.
“At the University of California, we want all qualified students to be aware of the academic experiences available to them and get an early start on planning and preparing for college,” Napolitano said in a statement.
As part of the partnership, Napolitano and the College Board coordinated to send out a letter last spring from her to about 5,000 low-income students who did well on the PSAT. The letter encouraged students to apply to the university and take advanced courses at their high schools.
This current campaign is simply the extension of that letter, Gullatt said.
“We are delighted that the University of California is also working on breaking down barriers for underrepresented minority students who show the potential to succeed in AP classes,” said Amy Wilkins, College Board senior fellow for social justice and director of the campaign, in a statement. “We hope that other institutions of higher education will follow their lead.”
Daniel Tutt is the lead higher education reporter. Contact him at dtutt@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @danielgtutt.