AVID/College Board

BCPS College Preparatory Initiatives

In the BCPS Master Plan, Dr. Hairston set a standard to increase rigorous instruction and student access to rigor by requiring all high schools to offer at least 12 AP course offerings by 2012.  Many high schools have already surpassed the projected standard and the remaining schools expect to meet the standard before the projected date.  

BCPS has several college preparatory initiatives.  In 2005, Dr. Hairston funded PSAT so that each grade 9 and grade 10 student could take the PSAT; thereby increasing all students’ access to the possibility of college.   In August 2007, the Gateway College Preparatory project, an expanded college partnership between BCPS and Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) began. This Superintendent’s initiative is designed to give grade 8 students in Title I schools exposure to a college environment by a one day visit to CCBC.  Students will interact with college professors and college students, and take an abbreviated form of the Accuplacer, an assessment tool which measures whether a student is on the academic track for college.  BCPS “college readiness” grade 10 students also take the full Accuplacer assessment.  BCPS high schools offer coach classes, PSAT/SAT preparation classes, Parallel Enrollment  Program/Dual College Enrollment, and SAT online. 

SAT online improves students’ performances with practice tests and response explanations. (See the College Board website, www.collegeboard.com/coursedemo, for a free demonstration of the SAT online course.)