How online textbooks could help more students take AP exams.
lterrat's bookmarks 2017-08-16
Summary:
"But there may be a fix here. By identifying cost-savings in other parts of the AP budget, states might be able to find the funds needed so all students can afford to take the end-of-year exam, giving them the opportunity to earn college credit for their work. The state of Texas has set aside funds to support students for this upcoming school year—qualifying students will pay just $7 per exam—but the state may have identified a more long-term solution: rethinking how—and how much—it pays for textbooks.
[...]
To address these costs, in 2015 the Texas Legislature appropriated $10 million in its budget to develop educational resources that would be available, free of charge, to the more than 1,000 school districts in the state. Using half of the funds, the Texas Education Agency contracted with OpenStax, a nonprofit based at Rice University, to write textbooks for several popular high school STEM courses. OpenStax agreed to develop textbooks for high school physics and statistics, as well as textbooks for five AP courses: microeconomics, macroeconomics, Physics 1, Physics 2, and biology."