A few weeks ago our team went down to Corpus Christi to wrap-up our Phase I project with Corpus Christi ISD (CCISD). They are a nimble team that over the last few years has put in place a number of deliberate strategies to improve the college and career readiness of their students. 

 As part of our Phase I analysis work, one of the major areas we analyzed was advanced coursework participation, specifically around college-credit bearing courses such as Advanced Placement and Dual Credit. 

Some of our key findings were similar to what we have seen across dozens of districts of all sizes and locations throughout Texas:

• Advanced coursework participation has a strong impact on college success - When students participate in more advanced courses, they are more likely to enroll, persist, and graduate from college. This is true even after accounting for GPA quartiles. 

• Clear equity gaps exist in advanced coursework participation - While the impact of advanced courses on college success is clear, there were and continue to be significant participation gaps across the state by gender, income, race/ethnicity, campus, etc. 

The CCISD team is eager to continue tackling this topic and, as a result, will work with us to conduct a deeper audit around their advanced academics to answer a number of questions such as…

• How are students currently recruited and placed in advanced academics courses?

• Once students are enrolled in these courses, how likely are they to succeed?

• What courses are currently offered across each campus? Should certain courses be standard across campuses?

We are excited and honored to continue partnering with the CCISD team as they seek to improve both the processes and support to increase student participation in advanced courses (while closing current identified gaps), thereby improving the college success and attainment of their students. 

If you are interested in similar analysis and/or support around advanced academics for your district or your district partners, we would love to hear from you!