CONWAY — Conway High School senior Preston West is $600 richer thanks to good scores on college-level tests.
West, 17, said he’s thinking about putting the money toward the cost of a sailboat he and his family can use on Greers Ferry Lake. They have one now, but he’d like a bigger one. So, “I’m looking at getting that,” he said.
West was among 218 Conway High School students who scored 3, 4 or 5 on a 5-point system, with 5 being the best, on Advanced Placement tests last spring, high enough to qualify for a $100 reward on each exam.
With six $100 gift cards, West took home the most money awarded to Conway High students by the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science. The program, commonly called AAIMS, allows students to get college-level credit in English, math and science courses.
The grant-funded, nonprofit organization and Gov. Mike Beebe recognized Conway High on Thursday as making the top scores among31 Arkansas high schools in 28 school districts that participated in the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science program during the past school year.
The program, based at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is handing out $100 gift cards totaling $258,000 to students in those 31 schools, said Tommie Sue Anthony, president of the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science program.
In addition to Conway students - who Superintendent Greg Murry said received a total of $32,400 - 56 students at Mills University Studies High in the Pulaski County Special School District are to receive $100 to $400 each, awards totaling nearly $10,000. Similarly, 91 students at Little Rock’s Parkview Magnet School are to receive awards totaling $11,700 this week.
Anthony did not know the exact number of students statewide who qualified for the monetary rewards. Last year, though, about 8,404 Arkansas public high school students participated in the program. This academic year, she said, the programis in 38 schools in 35 districts, with about 10,000 students involved.
Students participating in the 3-year-old Arkansas program posted a 32 percent overall increase last spring in qualifying scores in math, science and English, Anthony said.
The governor, in his weekly column and radio address, said that Advanced Placement courses “are opportune ways for students to accelerate their educations and raise their achievement levels.”
Four years ago, Beebe said, Arkansas was one of six states to get a $13.2 million grant, largely funded by Exxon/Mobil and the Walton Family Foundation, from the National Math and Science Initiative to improve students’ Advanced Placement courses.
Students at the 31 schools that participated in the program last year took more than 36 percent of the total Advanced Placement tests given in Arkansas and earned almost 40 percent of the qualifying scores of 3 or better, Beebe said.
Beebe also said that the participating schools administered more than 43 percent of the Advanced Placement tests taken by students who are members of minority groups and produced 54 percent of the qualifying scores earned by black and Hispanic students statewide.
With the national initiative’s support and that of the Walton Family Foundation, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and UALR, Anthony said, “we have made a tangible difference in the lives of our students by giving them the tools to succeed in advanced, college-level courses.” “This will ultimately impacttheir future in college and in their careers,” she added in a news release.
The program also gives financial awards of $100 to teachers for every student score of 3 or better on the tests.
Speaking at the Conway High assembly Thursday, Dale Fleury, regional director for the National Math and Science Initiative, told the students, “There is a tremendous economic opportunity that awaits” them but only if they get the math, science and literacy skills the Advanced Placement program offers.
“You are shining examples of the success that this program can be,” he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/12/2011