New AP STEM Courses Coming to 11 Schools This Fall

Eleven Hillsborough County public high schools were selected to participate in the College Board’s new Advanced Placement STEM Access program, an initiative created to increase the number of traditionally underrepresented minority and female high school students that participate in AP STEM courses.

The participating high schools are Blake, Durant, Gaither, King, Newsome, Plant, Robinson, Steinbrenner, Strawberry Crest, Tampa Bay Technical and Wharton.

They were chosen based on the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses assigned to their school, as well as the AP Potential data from 2011 PSAT scores identifying underrepresented students with a 70 percent likelihood of scoring a 3, 4 or 5 on the AP STEM exam.

Blake High School -- AP Biology

Durant High School --AP Computer Science

Gaither High School --AP Computer Science

King High School -- AP Computer Science

Newsome High School -- AP Computer Science

Plant High School -- AP Computer Science

Robinson High School -- AP Computer Science

Steinbrenner High School -- AP Computer Science

Strawberry Crest High School -- AP Physics B

Tampa Bay Technical High School -- AP Computer Science

Wharton High School -- AP Calculus BC and AP Physics B

The 11 Hillsborough County public high schools are part of more than 300 schools across the country participating in the AP STEM Access program.  

The new college-level AP STEM courses will start this fall and continue for a minimum of three years as part of the school’s overall AP course offerings.

The funding for the AP STEM Access program is provided by Google to DonorsChoose.org as part of Google’s new $5 million Global Impact Awards.  

Each participating school will receive start-up funding for classroom resources, educational materials and teacher professional development.

In addition, all AP STEM teachers working at the participating schools will receive a $100 DonorsChoose.org gift card for each student who achieves a score of 3, 4 or 5 on an AP STEM exam.  

A typical school will receive between $2,000 and $10,000 if it meets the criteria for all elements of the funding.

For more information about the AP STEM Access program, visit collegeboard.org/apstem.