Solution for AP math and science education, esp in rural US

[mandyky]

I went to a rural school in upstate NY. We had very little elective courses. Regents or not Regents was about it. 500 to 600 kids K thru 12.

We had VoTech schools that served several rural surrounding county schools, so why can't rural areas do the same with science and math? We were lucky, we had 2 colleges in the largest city that was only 20 miles away from our school, so colleges could also be used for AP courses.

In more populated areas, underprivileged schools should be forming partnerships with community colleges and universities.

[dcfirefighter]

1. They can, they're called magnet schools. nt

[Nikia]

2. I went to a rural school without AP classes in Ohio

I took several classes at a local college, which was paid for by the school. Unfortunately, the college that I ended up going to did not count those classes since they also counted for high school credit, which was a condition of my high school paying for the classes (I didn't really need those classes in order to graduate). They did count AP classes. I did not know at the time that one can take AP tests and get credit with a high enough score without taking an AP class. Even if I had, it might have been risky for me to try to take a test where most of the other students had been taught especially in preparation for the test since I didn't really have extra money at the time.
My college classes probably helped me get into a good college easier since I had A's in the 6 college courses that I had taken. It also presented a more challenging curriculum which was important in preparing me for college, although it was not as challenging as the college that I ended up attending.
Rural schools cooperating in offering a center for more challenging curriculm, including AP classes, would be a good idea. I don't know how in favor of that the school boards would be though. Support for honors and accelerated classes at my school seemed to be lacking. I suppose that it would be more cost effective than paying for students to attend college classes.