Collegiate Persistence and Accelerated Secondary Curriculum

Colleges and universities have long studied the science of retention through numerous research

articles attempted to analyze trends to predict the likelihood of students returning to the same

campus the following year, with the goal being to confer a degree. Tinto (2017) shared the view

that many theories revolving around student retention and continuation take a slant from the

university lens, with a large focus being to increase the bottom line; however, he also sheds light

on the importance of student experience, where the term persistence truly takes form. It is a

strange idea for a student to think of themselves as retaining when they are indeed persisting,

that is to overcome obstacles, both personal and academic, to achieve progress to the next mark

in their respective program(s). To understand student success in a challenging academic

environment, there must be a clear understanding of retention, and its student-counterpart,

persistence.

Persistence takes on an active form for students, and represents a sense of motivation. These

beliefs a student may have to overcome academic obstacles, despite fears or shortcomings for

some student populations, is a form of courage on themselves. It would be natural to expect a

university to ask how they can foster this motivation students have. Students have many different

forces which assist in creating who they will become, and to best prepare students to curb the

effects of adversity, a focus needs to be on promoting the development of self-efficacy in a

student. Self-efficacy is a concept which deals with an individual’s belief they can succeed in a

task at-hand (Bandura & Estes, 1977). It is no surprise that students with high self-efficacy can

persist in challenging tasks, and see them to completion, whereas those with low self-efficacy

can find themselves easily discouraged (Chemers et al. 2001; Vuong et al., 2010). While
universities may offer an array of student support services, this does not mean a struggling

student will opt to partake in asking for help.

It is no secret, there exist student who struggle and find intrinsic reasons to not ask for help,

whether it be fear of being the only one, not being able to make it, or something else. This

concept of self-efficacy and confidence can be positively influenced with focusing on student

engagement. Tinto (2017) shares that sense of belonging can be another key area for assisting

students. This non-cognitive trait can be expressed as a way that student feels bound, in a way, to

a group or a community in both encouraging and adverse times. When students feel a connection

to a university, they can persist, and these connections can help provide motivation to connect

with others, and in turn help more students. When a sense of belonging is weak for a student,

they can become withdrawn, both in-and-out of the classroom, and undermine student

performance (Walton & Cohen, 2007). The postsecondary education landscape has long been

riddled with challenges that both students and campus professionals must face, and ultimately

work through together. Students can often face and be forced to overcome risk factors

throughout their journey of personal and academic discovery.

Students who encounter these factors in higher education are often referred to as at-risk, and can

have to overcome academic barriers and stopping out, or dropping out, of higher education,

according to The Glossary of Higher Education Reform (2018). There are a multitude of risk

factors facing collegiate students, especially during their first year. Some common examples of

these risk factors are being academically underprepared, socioeconomic status, being a first-

generation student, lacking post-secondary knowledge, and not understanding the responsibilities

of financial independence, though this list is not exhaustive. For a student to be ready to succeed

in a post-secondary environment, they must also have other securities in place: financially,
emotionally, and physically though physical well-being won’t be a focus in this study. One of the

well-studied areas of risk factors for students is the relationship between income and collegiate

persistence.

It is well-known that low-income families historically struggle with collegiate enrollment,

persistence and completion despite their growing numbers in higher education. Additionally,

even for the respectively small percentage of low-income families, when compared to more

advantaged populations, the likelihood of degree attainment is low (Engle & Tinto, 2008;

Cataldi, Bennet & Chen, 2018; Redford & Hoyer, 2017). However, an interesting shift in the

recent years of research are showing that low-income students are enrolling at a higher rate than

middle-income students, as defined by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

While 2012 ago low-income students were enrolling at a rate nearly 15% lower than that of

middle-income students, in 2016 low-income students showed a significant climb, overtaking the

middle-income students, who remained relatively stagnant. (NCES, 2018a). Despite this increase

in enrollment, and while trends suggest that low-income enrollment will increase, they face

higher attrition rates than their peers, and commonly struggle with familial and financial

obligations when attempting to finish their coursework, often taking lighter course loads that

their peers (Engle & Tinto, 2008). If these hardships weren’t enough already, students as a

whole, face a question of college preparation overall. National assessments, collected through the

NCES, have shown either stagnation or decline in areas of reading, mathematics and science for

12th grade students (NCES, 2018b). The point still remains however, if more low-income

students are making the journey into higher education, why are they not persisting or completing

degrees?
Higher education is a tumultuous landscape to low-income families, especially if that low-

income family is home to a first-generation student. For the NCES, there are several key risk

factors which impinge on a student’s likelihood to succeed, especially those which are more

prominent in low-income or first-generation families: attending part-time, being financially

independent from family, having children or being a single parent (Engle & Tinto, 2008). It is

easy to link the before mentioned risk factors to financial needs and socioeconomic

characteristics for students. The financial needs for students have shown to be a constant concern

for students, with the cost for 4-year public institutions climbing higher every year, while

financial aid distributions cover about one-third to one-half of the cost of tuition for low- and

middle-income families (NCES, 2018c). In addition to these attributes, a student must also have

an academic background to be successful in a collegiate environment, altogether creating a

pathway to the baseline goal of higher education, completing a degree.

Adelman (2006), in his seminal paper on national higher education, examined the key factors

that lead to the attainment of a bachelors degree, but also tried to capture an idea of academic

rigor an preparation in its relations to college success, across a wide array of demographics.

First-year academic performance was shown to be a key factor in persistence for students in

terms of their likelihood to complete a bachelor’s degree (Adelman, 2006). Programs that

promote advanced standing for high school students have shown positive impacts on the first-

year performance of students in a variety of college settings (Ewing & Howell, 2015; North &

Jacobs, 2010; Adelman, 2006). Because of this, students are constantly encouraged to participate

in these programs, and participation in Advanced Placement (AP) coursework showed a positive

correlation with student pursuit and transition into colleges. In the years since Adelman’s 2006
report, there have been millions of AP exams given each year nationwide, with over 5 million

tests being given about 3 million students in the 2018 year alone (CollegeBoard, 2018).

AP examinations and their predictive validity and have been well-studied and have shown some

sort of positive correlation, either weak or strong, when associated with college attendance,

completion, and overall performance (Patterson & Ewing, 2013; Shaw, Mattern, & Marini, 2012;

Morgan & Klaric, 2007). However, even with AP testing having a positive impact in the broad

population of students, exam performance often doesn’t highlight some of the disadvantages

experienced by certain demographics, or even geographical location. Rural school districts often

struggle to offer AP examinations, and Gagnon and Mattingly (2016) reveal that only a slight

majority of rural districts enroll AP students, which falls significantly below towns, suburban

areas, and urban areas. Additionally, even when rural districts can offer AP courses, there is still

a 30% difference in enrollment between rural areas and towns than suburban and urban areas.

Suburban and urban areas showed significantly higher enrollment and completion rates than rural

areas and towns, with these outcomes amplified by poverty (Gagnon & Mattingly, 2016). AP

tests, though popular, are not the only form of testing that students can participate in.

International Baccalaureate (IB) tests are administered at over 1400 schools in the United States

(International Baccalaureate, 2018). Though the research conducted into the International

Baccalaureate Program has been less comprehensive, it has been shown that in 2008, 78% of

students who complete the IB Diploma enrolled into postsecondary institutions immediately after

completing their secondary education, compared to the US national average of 69%.

Furthermore, of the number of student who had gone immediately into postsecondary education,

95% had chosen a 4-year institution, and featured a nearly perfect first-year and second-year

retention (Bergeron, L., 2015). There remained little evidence of research conducted to do a
cross-comparison of these individual categories in association with their impact on first-year

success, and such research would have been limited by students who combine multiple areas.

Looking beyond the common venues, such as AP and IB coursework, states have taken the idea

of collegiate preparation into policy-making, crafting ways for educational partnerships to be

created.

The intentionality around improving student attainment and persistence through partnerships has

been an increasing priority across the federal and state governments and even corporate leaders

(Delicath, 1999, et al. Simmons, 1994). These types of programs have long been established, and

have expanded to being offered in all 50 states, with 46 states having legislative, or state-

sponsored, governance specifically regarding postsecondary enrollment programs (Education

Commission of the States, 2016). Programs in Oregon such as the Oregon Pathways Program

from the University of Oregon, Four Years Free from Portland State University, and the Jackson-

Josephine Pledge program from Southern Oregon University (SOU) work to address these

concerns. Prior to participating in a program like the Jackson-Josephine Pledge program, many

incoming SOU students participate in the Advanced Southern Credit (ASC) program.

The ASC program serves as a long-standing partnership between SOU and Oregon high schools.

Teachers at host high schools, after a review process, can teach courses to students at their

schools which are recognized by SOU for equivalent credit, for a reduced tuition price. Given the

nature of college credit, prior to college enrollment, it would be natural to assume that students

who participate in ASC would have a more successful transition to SOU; however, there has

been no evidence of a formal study regarding the Advanced Southern Credit program featured

through Southern Oregon University and its surrounding locale. According to the Office of

Institutional Research for SOU, there were 67 students in the Fall 2016 class that participated in
the ASC program, of which 85% persisted into their second year, which was noticeably greater

than the overall campus persistence rate for first-year freshman of 72%. Limitations associated

with these figures could be related to the students’ SES or simply their proximity to the

university, a majority of ASC courses are taught within 40 miles of the main campus. Overall,

there have been many studies to show the different benefits and aims of advanced standing

programs, but there is room to investigate their particular benefits to the students of Southern

Oregon University.

With an understanding of the various forms of accelerated coursework, this study aims to

investigate the relationship between retention and persistence, and advanced standing. In the

scope of this study advanced standing will represent college credit earned prior to enrolling in

courses as a regular student at Southern Oregon University for first-time, full-time students

during their first-year of enrollment. Advanced standing in this study will be separated into 4

brackets of completed coursework, where completed implies a letter grade, grade of “Passing”

(P) or credit-by-exam (AP and IB coursework). After reviewing the literature surrounding the

use and efficacy of AP and IB exams, populations of students who have received AP or IB

credits will be compared to students who completed ASC courses, and the general student body

of no-credit, first-time, full-time freshmen.

The Changing Landscape of Academic Preparation

With the rising cost of attendance in public, and private, post-secondary education in the United

States, students have to struggle to create a sense of financial security, not just for attendance,

but living as well (CollegeBoard, 2017; Silva et al. 2015). Though many college students have

resources and support, both inside, and outside of the classroom, it requires a campus-wide

approach to address the issues which impact students at the foundational level, rather than case-

by-case solutions. Institutions of higher education, as a whole, are often questioned in terms of

their ability to prepare students for the expectations of a new professional world, in a globalized

economy. Within higher education, there is an abundance of resources in the importance of the

first year a student attends, and ultimately their degree attainment. Students may attempt to

acclimate themselves to a collegiate environment by striving to complete college credit, or

college equivalent courses, before attending a postsecondary institution. Students will often have

an added benefit of saving money by earning college credits through accelerated coursework,

such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and concurrent enrollment programs.

Though there exist other credit-by-examination opportunities for students, they will not be

examined in this study.

One of the identifiable factors contributing to collegiate success of students is their preparation

for an academically rigorous environment. Encouraging high-school students to participate in

programs, which provide education comparable to a collegiate environment, is common among

public and private secondary schools across the nation. Collegiate preparatory coursework is a

venue by which students can help themselves prepare for the transition to a collegiate

environment. Chen (2012), showed that consistent with earlier works(Tinto 1987, 1992), and

Pascarella and Terenzini’s (2005) review, there is a strong relationship between academic
preparation and college experience and predicting collegiate drop-out. Though this study is

limited by the parameters of the data not tracking students who successfully complete after

transferring, this paper seems to be the first of its kind in its modeling. Nevertheless, research

shows a strong connection between secondary education rigor and postsecondary success,

resulting in programmatic partnerships across the country between secondary institutions,

colleges, and universities to foster academic preparation. Often times, these program offer

accelerated curriculums through courses like AP and IB, or by utilizing these courses to partner

with local institutions to receive college credit.

For high school students, accelerated programs which offer and opportunity for college credit

have gained popularity, especially in regards to AP and IB coursework (Suldo et al., 2018).

Given its growing popularity, many states have begun linking policy initiatives to accelerated

coursework, such as AP, in order to address a needed avenue for increased academic rigor

(Spalding, Eden, & Heppner, 2012; McBride Davis, Slate, Moore & Barnes, 2015). Policy

development has gained attention in the area of high school education, with 283 state bills being

introduced in the last year relating to high school education, with over half being directly related

to dual or concurrent enrollment, AP, IB, and college readiness courses (Education Commission

of the States, 2019). While the AP program is studied often, with its incredible reach in the

United States, the IB program has not had nearly as big of a claim on the market of accelerated

learning. In regards to dual credit, there is an inherent difficulty in separating out true

institutional courses versus the courses which students are awarded credit for taking an advanced

course (such as AP) in their secondary curriculum, for that reason dual credit will not be studied

explicitly. With states focusing on participation in these advanced programs, there remains a

need to clarify where resources should be placed, and if students in these accelerated courses
need additional resources, and if these courses truly provide necessary preparation for post-

secondary success.

With more students taking courses in AP and IB curriculum, there has been a growing focus

surrounding the efficacy of students who participate in these courses, and if the outcome is worth

the work. Adelman (2006) suggested that participation in accelerated courses (AP and IB) was a

key indicator of post-secondary success, even though more recent studies have argued that rather

than participation, the end-of-course exam was a stronger indication of success (Ackerman,

Kanfer & Calderwood, 2013). A recent study asserts that a focus on mere academic completion

is too narrow a focus when considering student performance. Research should include factors

such as emotional well-being through quality of life and mental health, especially considering

that student who do participate in accelerated courses are generally more stressed than non-

participants (Sulda et al., 2018, Sulda et al., 2009). There are many students who participate in

accelerated coursework who do not fit the “profile” of gifted students. Students who participate

in these courses can have GPAs below 3.0, low emotional well-being, mental health concerns,

and a may not earn a passing grade. This would contradict the assumption that participation in

these accelerated courses is reserved to the academically gifted students.

One may naturally assume that if a student is accelerated academically, they may be more

prepared for challenging courses, but often times, these students need support. IB and AP course

participants are in need of crucial academic and emotional support, similar to the general student

body (Suldo, et al., 2018). Furthermore, knowing that students with advanced curriculum may

not be able to cope with stress as effectively as the general student body, institutions can exercise

extra precaution when considering student services. With Chen’s (2012) model considering both

student and institutional-level concerns, he is also able to show contrast between factors which
impact students, and factors which impact the institution, but all factors relate directly to student

persistence. While there are financial barriers for students, there stand financial hardships for

universities and the possible misallocation of institutional funds. Millea et al. (2018) suggested

that institutions should invest in smaller class sizes, Chen (2012) found that institutional funds

towards instruction are less value than funds towards student services.

Student services and class size can be considered, but first there must be an understanding of

how these accelerated students are received by their host institutions. While AP courses are

accepted by a wide array of schools, there remains a question of if students are truly ready for a

next-level course following credit received for an AP course (e.g. taking BIO 102 after getting

credit for BIO 101). There are millions of AP exams taken by millions of students each year, and

of this population there are many students who will not pass the exam with scores sufficient to

receive credit; however, there is a since of consistency to how AP scores are received and

credited at different institutions. On the contrary, the IB program suffers from a general sense of

mystery as only dozens of post-secondary schools accept IB credit compared to the hundreds of

AP acceptors. To understand the differences in how these scores are interpreted and impact

student’s academic efficacy, it is necessary to understand the background of both programs.

The International Baccalaureate Program

History of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO)

The International Baccalaureate program arose in the 1960s, with an intent to capitalize on the

changing landscape of education, as classroom practices shifted from a more hermetic and

didactic approach to progressive and constructive. In 1962, following some of the pivotal minds

of progressive and constructive education, such as Dewey and Piaget, the IB program was born
out of conference of social studies instructors aiming to create an “International Passport to

Higher Education”, which simply became the International Baccalaureate, later a registered

organization (IBO, 2017). Throughout the 1960s, the IB program developed and refined its core

package of curriculum, known today as the IB Diploma. Blending progressive educational

theories together, IB created the foundation of the diploma by combining two key philosophies,

the theory of knowledge and creativity, activity, and service which fostered critical analysis and

application, rather than traditional encyclopedic memorization.

In 1970 the first set of IB Diploma exams were given to students of Germany and France, and

the organization watched its curriculum be adopted by different countries during the next decade,

and marveled as its North American Regional Office opens in New York in 1975 as elite private

schools begin offering curriculum to students (IBO, 2017). Recognizing the need to prepare

students for a curriculum that was quickly becoming globalized, the 1980s saw the development

of a preparatory curriculum, known originally as a “Pre-IB” program, later becoming the Middle

Years Programme (MYP) in 1994. The organization continually refined its program, allowing IB

to leave its mark with the creation of the Primary Years Programme (PYP) in 1997, making the

IB program one of the first international, comprehensive, standardized curriculums. Soon after

the academic programs were developed, the IB organization also created a curriculum centered

around career-related learning, which allowed many schools to innovate their own unique

delivery of to meet individual needs of host institutions (IBO, 2017).

The Career-related Program (CP) allows students to have an intermediate step on the way to a IB

Diploma, which stands as the highest credential offered by the organization. Combined with its

other programs, these allows a distinctive niche for IB programs, especially when compared to

Advanced Placement. The International Baccalaureate Organization provides comprehensive

curriculum through primary and secondary education, along with options in career-related

studies. Over the entirety of its program offerings, IB participation has increased from an elite,

private school population of 7 schools and 749 students in 1971 to approximately 1.25MM

students and over 4,500 schools, a majority of which are public institutions.

Analyzing the International Baccalaureate Program

While its intent for students is clear, the IB program remains somewhat foreign to many schools

across the nation, only being present in 1700 US schools, a vast majority of which are public

(Newsweek, 2017). In regards to the high school courses, there are similarities to other

standardized tests, such as common course objectives for a given subject, and an end-of-course

exam; however, the nature of IB courses which is supposed to make them stand out are also the

source of their foreign nature. IB courses, at the secondary level, come into two tiers, commonly

known as standard-level (SL) and higher-level (HL) courses, the former taught over 1 academic

year, whereas the latter, is spread over two years. In addition to this unorthodox timeline for

different tiers, the courses seek not only content-oriented knowledge, but are assessed in terms of

metacognition and philosophy of a given topic known as the theory of knowledge (TOK) and

societal connectivity, or creativity, action and service (CAS) projects. Adding assessments such

as these to a course which typically isn’t expected to have them, such as a natural science course,

creates confusion in how to articulate the IB exams to college credit. To clarify, the IB program

creates a challenging process for articulation due to a need to have a more comprehensive review

of course outcomes by academic departments, and taking faculty hours to review a course which

very few students entering a university may have, isn’t an attractive option for institutions of

higher education. Universities who receive higher numbers of IB applicants may consider a more

in-depth review of its curriculum. Since a majority of IB participants apply to only 50 institutions
in the US, predominately in California, Massachusetts, and New York, a simple glance at their

policies for accepting IB credit can show a competitive bias. Of the top-ten schools which IB

participants ultimately attend, a majority rank a 1, 2, or 3 on the Barron’s Selectivity Category

(IBO, 2016; Barron’s Educational Services, 2008). Given the limited range of IB students in the

US, little research exists about IB students outside of the IBO research itself, though there have

been international studies and a study of University of California system which marks one of the

only large-scale investigations of IB students compared to a general student body.

IB Diploma students from a Canadian study showed that while a majority of studies felt more

prepared for introductory level college coursework, their stress during the first-year of college

was still not alleviated for half of the participants (Taylor & Porath, 2006). Additionally, the

results of a (1996) study by Poelzer and Feldhusen suggested that the IB natural science areas

such as chemistry, physics, and biology were more beneficial to students than the other types of

standard curriculum. Taylor and Porath (2006) also indicated that students and their parents

expressed concerns with the amount of work associated with an IB Diploma. Furthermore, they

assert that the increased workload and academic performance created a difficulty in engaging

with extracurricular activities, which college admissions office often look for. Unfortunately,

there are very few studies regarding the student experience following the completion of IB

coursework, and the (2006) study fails to be generalized based on its sample population being

small. In contrast, the aforementioned University of California study was one of the first which

had a large population of student across different post-secondary campuses, a trait many other

studies have excluded.

University of California schools are known for their competitive nature regarding new students,

with campuses such as Berkeley, Los Angeles, and San Diego being considered among the most
competitive, when looking at admission test scores and GPA. IB participants were shown to

select, and be admitted to, these three campuses at a higher rate than the general student bodies

(Shah, Dean, & Chen, 2010). In California, students who attended the University of California

schools from 2000-2002 were tracked on an Academic Performance Index (API), a system which

groups students on a performance scale of 1-10 (lowest performance to highest). When students

were split into 5 even API groupings (1-2, 3-4, etc.) IB students were shown to outperform both

comparator students, and general student bodies in every API category during the first year of

attendance. Students who participated in IB coursework showed not only higher academic

performance at the end of their first year, but also at the time of graduation, and higher overall

graduation rates (Shah et al., 2010). For student whose families had reported income to the

schools, through scholarship or federal applications for financial aid, a majority of students who

participated in IB coursework came from a low or low-middle income bracket (less than $80,000

a year), and these students seemed to benefit the most in first year performance when compared

to IB participants in higher income ranges. Though it was shown that IB students clearly perform

at a stronger level, this does not itself provide a causality that IB is the key reason the students

succeeded, and fails to capture the personal experience of the students in terms of transition to

college and stress.

In a (2009) study, IB students were shown to have a higher level of perceived stress,

accompanied by a higher level of academic function and comparable social-emotional function

when compared to a control group/ However, even with these advantages, the IB students

showed a stronger likelihood for externalizing poor behavior when encountering stressors related

to relationships (Suldo et al., 2009; Suldo et al., 2008). One of the key purposes of their (2009)

study was to determine the sources of stress in high-achieving students, such as those in the IB
program. Previous studies have shown that IB students have a higher level of perceived stress

than students in general curriculum, which is in addition to the academic stresses commonly

experienced by students in their adolescence (Suldo et al., 2008; Crystal et al., 1994; Anda et al.,

2000; Lohman & Jarvis, 2000). In American schools, standardized testing has shown to be a

source of stress for students, which is especially impactful for students of IB (which has end-of-

course exams), many of whom also take AP courses to increase the amount of college credit they

may be awarded (McNamara, 2000; Mathews, 2004). Along with academic stress, IB students

must also endure dichotomous stresses which affect many students, such as familial or

relationship-based stress, which holds true in studies both American and abroad (Byrne et al,

2007; Lohman & Jarvis, 2000, Mates & Allison, 1992). It is no surprise that stress encountered

at home can have an impact on a student’s performance, both positive and negative. Students

who are taking these advanced curriculums often are going through their own adolescent

transitions and trying to cope with new pressures such as social engagement, employment, or

even peer pressure to engage in unfavorable activities such as violent crime, or illicit substance

use (Bennett & Miller, 2006; Byrne et al., 2007, Mates & Allison, 1992; Lohman & Jarvis,

2000). While exploring the academic and social context of the IB leads to a better understanding

of its participants, one question still remains: how do schools value the IB program?

Unsurprisingly, while participation in IB programs has increased in American students, the

question of understanding value is far from standardized. Studies previously discussed do

observe that IB participants do perform well in college, many IB students are applying to more

competitive schools, leaving room for improvement in our understanding of their successes: as

high achieving students tend to gravitate towards more selective institutions. At the IBO’s 2015

Higher Education Symposium, John Young, IBO’s head of research, shared that in American
schools, IB students retain in their first year at a rate of 98% overall, with a 4-year completion of

79%, and 83% for six-year completers, which far exceeds the US national average (Young,

2015). Unfortunately, this claim has yet to be supported by any non-IBO studies, pointing again

to a lack of clarity around IB programs in the US and a lack of longitudinal studies around IB in

America. Looking at a valuation of IB requires a way to assess the academic content of the

course, which is tied to scores, TOK and CAS.

Currently, other than simply accepting scores, similar to AP exams, there is no easy way to

evaluate the extracurricular components of IB, which seem to align well with high-impact

practices, as introduced largely by George Kuh (Kuh, 2008). Knowing the content aligns with

traditional course material (math, social sciences, etc.) allows for some schools to award credit

for favorable exam scores of 5, 6, or 7 on a scale of 1-7. Another key aspect of the difficulty in

assessing IB coursework is the nature of standard level (SL) and higher level (HL) courses. SL

courses suffer from a poor nomenclature, as standard in terms of education is often interpreted as

a sort of baseline, while in the realm of IB it represents an advanced curriculum when compared

to traditional courses. Unfortunately, with the global nature of IB, it is highly unlikely the word

“standard” would even change, since IB has thousands of schools over dozens of countries.

Another setback of its value is in the structure of the HL courses, as they spread advanced

curriculum over 2 years, rather than one.

Typically, universities have a way to value the scores of HL exams, which is generally similar to

the valuation of AP courses, and may result in 1-2 semester course equivalents, based on scores.

The generally unconsidered aspects of IB, in terms academic value, are the extracurricular

components around service and projects. Neil Donahue (2016), Vice Provost for Undergraduate

Academic Affairs at Hofstra, shares that there is a clear argument for the recognition of IB
program credit at universities, and that a large hurdle is simply gathering the academic

departments together to do a comprehensive review. Luckily, some states have become strong

supporters of creating policy around accelerated courses for students, and some urge its higher

education institutions to revisit their policies surrounding the acceptance of AP and IB credit. As

more universities begin a stronger valuation of the IB curriculum, it will allow other institutions

to follow their path in order to remain competitive. The most competitive schools often bypass

the dilemma completely and simply don’t award credit for accelerated courses, or only award

credit for the highest score (Byrd, Ellington, Gross, Jago, & Stern, 2007; Donahue, 2016). This

brings the original question back to light: how do universities value the IB program? Currently, it

seems schools try to model their acceptance similarly to AP, where students can receive credit

for strong test scores, though there are variations of acceptance, with some schools accepting

only HL scores even though SL coursework has been shown to be as-good-as or stronger than

their corresponding AP courses (Byrd, Ellington, Gross, Jago, & Stern, 2007). There is a need to

clarify articulations for AP and IB courses for institutions, but also for students.

The Advanced Placement Program

History of the Advanced Placement Program

Many students and educators know the AP program of today to be one of the prominent

“children” of CollegeBoard, who also administers the SAT exam, but the first iteration of the

program was not actually property of the CollegeBoard. The Advanced Placement program

originates from America, specifically near and following the conflicts of the Cold War and

Korean War in the 1950s wherein the public urged for the upgrading of education in order to

combat the spread of communism (Rothschild, 1999). In the early 1950s, the Ford Foundation
heard the cry of the public and began creating the Fund for the Advancement of Education

(FAE). Following the formation of the FAE, the history of Advanced Placement becomes

somewhat clouded, as described by Rothschild (1999). It isn’t clear if there were crucial

educational theories that existed at the core of the AP program, or if it simply out of a perceived

public need to accelerate gifted students. It seems clear that in 1951, 11 university presidents

worked with administrators from secondary schools to create a desirable accelerated courses in

an effort to allow quick advancement for a high school student, targeting students at the age of

16, roughly sophomores or juniors. There is a disagreement about when CollegeBoard officially

assumed administrative control of the program, but it is clearly that under the management of

CollegeBoard, Advanced Placement grew into the standard of accelerated curriculum for many

years.

As the program grew out of the creative university administrators who developed it, AP spread

across the United States fiercely, and with little competition as IB didn’t arrive in the US until

the 1970s. College professors are the primary source of course content for the AP curriculum,

and throughout much of its lifespan, the AP courses have been criticized for having a broad

scope, and little depth in areas (Tierney, 2012; Drew, 2011). Through its widespread growth,

there has been a back-and-forth argument regarding the definition of the “quality” of advanced

placement programs, ultimately resulting in researchers arguing that there was blatant

manipulation of data to favor arguments (Camara et al., 2000; Licthen, 2000). Being a widely

accessible and considerably American program, the AP program is often a subject of many

researchers’ projects, and the abundance of available data brings the reports filed by

CollegeBoard under scrutiny for their claims of financial benefits, accuracy through omission,

such as reports claiming success by multiple-choice scores only, and failing to include the
written portion of exams (Licthen 2000, 2007, 2010; Klopfenstein, 2010; Lacy, 2010). Even in

the face of such scrutiny, this has not stopped the program from growing from a handful of

exams at its beginning to dozens of offerings today.

As of 2019, Advanced Placement is comprised of 38 unique subject exams offered to high school

students. In its origination, the AP program was meant to merely incentivize college placement,

but it has since turned into a factor in the college admissions process, wherein 60% on colleges

and universities have policies allowing college credit equivalency for strong exam scores (Byrd

et al., 2007). Unlike its main competitor IB, the AP program boasts millions of test takers each

year, and has for several years. Over time, the exam has grown more inclusive, showing a

quintupled increase in low-income participants from 2003-2013, and along with that growth,

there remains a consistent, sizeable pool of students, over 40%, who are not able to achieve a

score of 3 (scale of 1-5) which is considered the minimum score for passing, or the academic

equivalent of a C. Unfortunately, the number of students who are scoring below 3 are increasing

each year, growing by 2% overall from 2006-2016 which represent just over 900,000 students in

2006 and nearly 2MM in 2016 (CollegeBoard, 2014, 2017).

Analyzing the AP Program

As the AP program has grown into a nearly standard piece of curriculum in school districts who

can afford it, the program has seldom addressed the consistent decrease in mean score for test-

takers over time, showing the mean national score for tests hasn’t been at a 3 since 2002

(CollegeBoard, 2017). This would seem to give weight to the controversial claims made by

Lichten (2000, 2007, 2010) claiming that as the program has grown, the quality of the program

has decreased. As AP program spread to over 21,000 schools in the US, the Senior Vice
President for AP Trevor Packer, made a point to become more inclusive of low-income families,

growing the population of low-income test takers from just below 10% in 2003 to nearly 20% in

2018 (Mathews, 2018). Though this growth is admirable, as the population grows and time

moves forward, there becomes a need to revisit the curriculum required for the courses. In the

years leading up to 2013, the AP program has come under fire for the slip in curriculum, and has

watched as colleges and universities begin to value the AP exam differently over time. Top

schools like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, and Dartmouth have

begun to question the quality of skills that come out of AP courses, some schools choosing to no

allow AP credit at all (Mathews, 2018).

One of the causes of this review on AP credits in colleges may be attributed to the amount of

material that was required for AP teachers to cover in a course which is spread over a year.

Christopher Drews, a reporter for The Times (2011) interviewed AP teachers and inquired about

the difficulty of meeting the curricular demands of AP, and how it may impact students.

Teachers of AP Biology, the second most popular STEM exam offered, reported that the material

for AP Biology had grown over years from a 36 chapter book to 56 chapter covering 1400 pages

of material, from which any of the AP Biology questions could be drawn (Drew, 2011).

However, as more public and private high schools began criticizing the exams, along with

colleges and universities, CollegeBoard did take the feedback seriously. Trevor Packer, aimed to

revisit and rollout new curriculum for the courses, aimed to span 2014-2018 for all courses, and a

renewed focus on concept comprehension, rather than just memorization (Mathews, 2018). Even

with new materials being released within the AP program, there stands an abundance of research

looking into racial inequity in testing, access to rural schools, and the overall quality of the

courses (Gagnon & Mattingly, 2016).

In recent study, targeting Hispanic students in different states over a period of 15 years (1997-

2012), noted that the AP Language and Composition and Literature and Composition tests

showed a dramatic lack of preparation for Hispanic students, with only one-third of test takers

actually passing the exam with a 3 or better (Koch, Slate & Moore, 2016). AP Language (or

Literature) and Composition are two of the most popular exams for students across the nation,

and is commonly used to assist students with college-level writing practices. Wilson, Slate,

Moore and Barnes (2014) demonstrated that AP scores in several common subjects for Black

males, in states with high numbers passing AP scores, failed to reach passing-level with 65% of

all Black males from the study didn’t earn a passing grade. Along with these sort of preparatory

courses, it is common to see AP math courses, such as AP Calculus (AB or BC) be utilized to

help students standout on not only college-entry exams such as the ACT or Sat, but also college-

placement. In a study of Utah students, researchers used AP English (Language or Literature)

and AP Calculus (AB or BC) to search for measurable changes in performance of the ACT.

Findings indicated that while both exams showed a small-positive correlation with performance,

the study has limitations with multiple-subject learners and trying to discern success from AP

courses versus high achieving students (Warne et al, 2015). One of the areas which creates

difficulty in measuring success such as this is the comparison between what the ACT and AP

exams test for. In theory, the ACT tests for college readiness and the AP exam tests for college-

level performance, creating a mismatch in desired outcomes, as a high-ACT score would

demonstrate strong college-readiness, and high-AP scores would show strong college-

performance.

Comparing Advanced Placement to International Baccalaureate

Though there are mixed opinions about the effectiveness of AP and IB coursework for high

school seniors, there seems to be no signs of either program slowing down in their growth to

students across the nation. For educators, both programs have a process to be able to teach a

course, though AP makes this process somewhat more simplistic. For an AP teacher to be able to

offer a course, it generally requires little more than finding an audience, attending a training, and

auditing a course to become able to teach an AP-level course. Though AP doesn’t require any

sort of specialized credentials for teaching their material, they do recommend an undergraduate

background in the content area (CollegeBoard, 2018). However, the International Baccalaureate

program is somewhat stringent on its requirements, starting by allowing the school itself to be

eligible to teach IB curriculum, for a hefty fee of 4,000 USD just for the application, and another

9,500 USD to be a “candidate school” to offer something such as the Diploma Programme.

Additionally, there remain separate fees for the primary years programme (PYP), middle years

program (MYP), and diploma programme (DP) programs for schools, which can severely impact

private schools which teach all grades. For schools who wish to offer the Career-Related

Program (CP), they must already be authorized as a DP school (IBO, 2016). Additionally,

teachers for IB courses must have valid teaching credentials, or a graduate degree in a content

area, with teaching experience. The costs of the IB program may be one of the key reasons that

drastically fewer American schools offer the course packages.

The lack of IB integration may be somewhat attributed to the methods by which its program(s)

must be administered. Unlike its main competitor, Advanced Placement, International

Baccalaureate does not allow a buffet style of coursework, allowing a school to pick-and-choose

which courses and exams are given. Schools which opt to participate in DP offered by IB must

offer courses from all six areas of its program, though schools may offer the DP, doesn’t imply
that students must participate in the full program. Both programs involve assessments which are

performed in class, and then reviewed externally, and returned for a final grade, and in general,

these graders are either other program instructors or university instructors. Unfortunately, there

remains little research attempting to compare the quality of one program to the other. Byrd,

Ellington, Gross, Jago, and Stern (2007) conducted the first real review of the quality of AP and

IB courses with the intent being to compare the two.

In their (2007) study, IB and AP courses, broken into four categories, were examined and

“graded” by university officials for their content, rigor, and clarity. Interestingly, their research

showed that the standard-level (SL) IB courses at least matched, or outperformed the AP

comparator in a side-by-side review, with weaknesses in the AP courses tending to be around

lack of curriculum clarity or lack of content depth; whereas, for the IB exams, the main critique

was its inherent global nature, avoiding most content depth for US-specific areas such as US

History. Additionally, the authors draw attention to the fact the AP instructors are often only

required to submit the course syllabus for a review, but aren’t actually evaluated on what content

is taught, unlike the IB (Byrd, Ellington, Gross, Jago & Stern, 2007). These findings are

interesting in the fact that the SL courses of IB are seemingly equivalent in overall quality to the

AP courses of the same areas, which may leader educators to look at how HL courses of IB can

be received. As has been expressed previously, one of the key difficulties in assessing the two

programs is due to the other components of the IB program, when compared to the AP program.

The theory of knowledge (TOK) and creativity, activity, service (CAS) are outside of the

spectrum of AP coursework, but to assume they are not valuable to the student would be an

error.
The TOK portion of IB DP programs is mostly characterized by an essay of 1,600 words and an

oral presentation to reflect on the more philosophical and epistemological aspects of the content

the student learned. In addition to the TOK assessment, students will have to participate in a

(CAS) activity, though these programs are not graded by the IBO. These extracurricular

activities encourage students to draw linkage between what they are learning and how it can be

applied, focusing on application and integration. These activities are required for the IB

Diploma, and while the TOK has a grade associated with it, the CAS serves as a student’s

extracurricular activity, in terms of a collegiate application. One of the crowning achievements

of the IB Diploma program is the completion of the 4,000 word research paper, which is meant

to incorporate the foundation knowledge from the courses, and also push the students to conduct

scholarly research into an area of their choosing, similar to a collegiate research paper at the

undergraduate level. Given the distinct differences in the two programs, there remains much

room for research and understanding of what each program offers.

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