Providing online AP courses to students in Maine
About AP4ALL
What is AP4ALL?
AP4ALL offers online Advanced Placement courses to any student residing in a Maine school administrative unit who is educated at the public expense. By offering AP courses online at no charge, AP4ALL provides equity of access to rigorous and challenging coursework for all Maine public high school students regardless of where they live and the limits of resources available in their local school.
Funds for this program at the Department of Education are appropriated by the Maine State Legislature specifically to support Maine public schools. As such, Maine public schools and Maine private schools approved for tuition purposes as described in Title 20-A §2951 may enroll students at no cost.
Background
Since 2007, AP4ALL has addressed the inequity of access to demanding, college-level courses by using online technologies to help offer such courses to every public high school student in Maine. Mirroring national trends in the growth of online learning, enrollment in the AP4ALL program rose significantly from 2007-2008 when it offered 6 courses with 44 enrollments, to 11 courses in 2008-2009 with 100 enrollments, and an all-time high of 187 enrollments in 14 courses during the 2009-2010 school year.
Students who participate in AP4ALL are taught by Maine certified teachers who receive extensive training not only in their specific AP content area, but also in the pedagogy of effective online teaching. AP4ALL provides teachers with significant support in the areas of integrating technology, effective online communication, and all aspects of teaching and learning related to an online course.
AP4ALL classes are year-long online courses that run from the day after Labor Day through one week after the scheduled date of the AP Exam for the course. All AP4ALL courses follow the same calendar, regardless of a student’s own school calendar, and each course satisfies all College Board Advanced Placement course requirements.
Benefits of participating in AP coursework?
More than 3,200 colleges and universities in the United States offer credit and/or advanced placement for qualifying AP scores. A qualifying score is anywhere from a 3 to a 5. It should be noted that each college or university develops its own policies on granting credit or placing a student in a particular level of course based on their AP performance.
If students are granted credit for AP courses taken in high school this can accelerate their progress toward graduation, and therefore save them money on the typical tuition, fees, and room and board. It can also allow them to spread their typical class load over time, provide the flexibility to pursue a double major, or study abroad without concerns about negatively impacting their ability to graduate on time.
In addition to providing students with opportunities that they might not otherwise have access to because of where they live, online learning can be much more than a solution to equity issues caused by geography and shrinking budgets. Highly qualified teachers can engage their students more fully online, fostering a collaborative learning environment, all the while free from the constraints of time and place. Innovative pedagogical approaches using a myriad of digital resources and instructional content can be used to support and personalize student learning. The proliferation of powerful and intuitive digital communication tools allows for a high level of interaction between students and teachers, students and students, and teachers and parents, irrespective of physical locations.