The impact of an advanced placement and training incentive program on increasing participation and performance of economically disadvantaged, military connected youth, and minority students

The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of the National Math and Science Initiative's (NMSI) Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program (APTIP) had an impact on student participation and performance of military connected youth, economically disadvantaged, and minority high school students in an urban school district. The study evaluated seven high schools in the district; of the seven, four schools did not receive NMSI's APTIP initiative, while the remaining three participated. Data were collected the year prior to the implementation of APTIP, and the year after. This study supports the premise that the first step to increasing the Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) pipeline is providing more high school students access to advanced courses.