WASHINGTON – The Howard University School of Education announced it will host the first Howard University Advanced Placement Summer Institute (APSI) in the Summer of 2021. As one of the newest institutions endorsed by the College Board to host AP Summer Institutes, the School of Education is committed to attracting Black and Latinx high school teachers to the institute in an effort to increase the diversity of AP educators nationwide. The inaugural APSI at Howard University will provide a total of 280 high school educators with over 30 hours of intensive professional development in a virtual setting. The APSI will be offered in two cohorts that last one week each. The first cohort will be offered from July 19-23, 2021 and the second cohort will be offered from July 26-30, 2021.  

“The College Board AP program enables high school students to take college-level courses and earn college credit while still matriculating in high school. It’s often considered a head start for college-bound students, said Dawn Williams, Ph.D., dean of the School of Education. “However, access to AP courses and diverse AP teachers remains an issue for students of color. The School of Education is pleased to introduce an AP Summer Institute that intends to bring part of the Howard experience to AP teachers nationwide.”

The College Board endorses select institutions to host the APSI, and Howard University is the only HBCU currently endorsed to offer the 2021 APSI. Howard University will offer workshops on seven courses, including AP English Literature and Composition, AP Statistics, AP US Government and Politics, AP Calculus AB, AP Spanish and AP Psychology. Each workshop will include a maximum of 15 participants and will be led by AP-certified educators recruited by Howard University.  

“The demand for Advanced Placement coursework is high among Black students, whose participation in AP courses and success on AP exams has grown at a faster rate in recent years than students of every other racial and ethnic group except Latinx,” said Trevor Packer, head of the AP Program. “We applaud Howard University for stepping up to meet this demand by hosting an AP Summer Institute, the essential learning opportunity for new teachers, typically the first step a school takes in expanding the availability of AP courses for their students.” 

Throughout the institute, educators will receive intensive training on the curriculum and teaching methods of AP courses while also being exposed to modules around implicit bias and anti-racist teaching and pedagogical approaches. Each workshop will include an experiential learning opportunity related to the field with the intent of modeling instruction. The workshops will allow teachers the opportunity to interact with colleagues and discuss concerns surrounding the AP courses they will teach.

Howard’s legacy of meeting the needs of underserved populations directly aligns with this latest effort to offer the APSI to diverse groups of educators. The percentage of Black and Latinx students taking AP courses has increased over the past 15 years, and more low-income students are also taking AP courses, much to the credit of efforts by the College Board to increase access. Howard’s goal is to contribute to the increase of Black and Latinx teachers certified to teach AP courses who will encourage Black and Latinx students to enroll. 

“It has been well documented that when Black and Latinx students have teachers who match their race or ethnicity they hold higher expectations for students of color, which may fuel other gains such as higher test scores, graduation rates and college attendance,” said Williams. “We have a goal of working with school districts to increase the numbers of diverse high school teachers that are certified to teach AP courses. This increase will impact the numbers of Black and Latinx students that are likely to take or be referred to AP courses.”

Registration for the APSI at Howard University will be launched during the Spring 2021 semester. For more information about the program and updates on how to register click here.

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About Howard University 

Founded in 1867, Howard University is a private, research university that is comprised of 13 schools and colleges. Students pursue studies in more than 120 areas leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University operates with a commitment to Excellence in Truth and Service and has produced one Schwarzman Scholar, three Marshall Scholars, four Rhodes Scholars, 11 Truman Scholars, 25 Pickering Fellows and more than 165 Fulbright recipients. Howard also produces more on-campus African-American Ph.D. recipients than any other university in the United States. For more information on Howard University, visit www.howard.edu. 

Media Contact: Misha Cornelius, misha.cornelius@howard.edu