Within their grasp

Reprinted with permission of the Dallas Morning News

Program offers encouragement, bonuses to students for Advanced Placement work

08/20/2000

By Linda K. Wertheimer / The Dallas Morning News

First of two parts

The odds were against Maria Rangel's going to college. Her mother dropped out of school in fourth grade. Her father quit in the sixth.

In kindergarten, she began learning English as a second language. In second grade, she was translating for her parents, both Mexican immigrants. By the time she entered ninth grade, she knew she would become the first in her family to get a high school diploma. That's all her parents expected.

That's all Maria thought she wanted.

English teacher Sondra Tyler had a different notion. Maria was college material, and Ms. Tyler was going to prove that an advanced degree was well within the Dallas teen's reach.

She persuaded Maria to enroll in Advanced Placement classes at Spruce High School. Not only would Maria learn college-level material in high school, but she could also get college credit if she passed the tests at the end of the year.

After taking six AP courses, Maria believed in her abilities as much as her teacher did. She graduated No. 1 in her class and will begin her freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin next week.

For Maria, the AP courses helped her realize that college was well within her grasp.

The importance of such advanced courses is not lost on educators. More than test scores, class rank or grade point averages, the difficulty level of high school classes counts when it comes to predicting a student's success in college, according to a 1999 U.S. Department of Education study.

Dallas philanthropist Peter O'Donnell said he recognized that in 1990 when he created the Advanced Placement Incentive Program to improve the quality of high school education. At the time, he was a member of the commission that brought the Superconducting Super Collider particle-accelerator project to southern Dallas and Ellis counties and was looking for a way to attract people to the area. Mr. O'Donnell, a Dallas native, earned the money for his foundation through investments.

The AP program encouraged students to not only enroll in the toughest courses available in most American high schools but also to study hard so they could pass the tests.

Offering incentives

As president of his own foundation, Mr. O'Donnell committed $1.3 million over five years to nine schools in southern Dallas and Ellis counties; the participating schools chipped in $250,000. The program paid for at least half the cost of the students' $76 exam fees and gave stipends to teachers to learn how to better run the AP courses in math, science and English. Mr. O'Donnell, a strong believer in incentives in the business world, also promised $100 to every student who earned a passing score on an AP exam.

The O'Donnell Foundation ended its commitment to those schools in 1995 and started another five-year program at nine high schools in the Dallas Independent School District. The foundation gave $3.5 million, and the school district contributed about $2.5 million. This year, the Texas Instruments Foundation took over private funding, committing $2.1 million over five years; the district will contribute $6.1 million.

Jack Swindle, Texas Instruments' senior vice president, said the company became involved because of the program's results. In the nine Dallas schools, the number of passing scores on AP tests increased more than fivefold, from 139 in 1995 – the year before the incentives were offered – to 703 last year. The number of exams taken also climbed during that same period, from 312 to 2,143.

However, the percentage of passing scores based on the number of exams taken dropped during the course of the incentive program. Students earned passing scores on 33 percent of the exams taken last year compared with 45 percent in 1995. Nationally, the average passing rate last year was 64 percent. In Texas, it was 55 percent.

Mr. Swindle and Mr. O'Donnell say they measure the incentive program's success by the number of passing scores – not the passing rate. They say the goal is to get more students to take the challenging courses. By opening the classes up to a broader group, however, the program enrolls more students who are less prepared.

Besides, Mr. Swindle and Mr. O'Donnell say, the program's real success comes from students' personal achievements, which can't be measured by a chart or percentage point.

The spark

Maria Rangel said AP courses gave her courage to consider college. Jennifer O'Neil, a high school senior, said passing eight AP tests convinced her that she could attend an Ivy League college. Erik Tarpley, who starts his junior year in college this fall, said AP courses gave him a taste of academic success after he'd had years of floundering grades. And Jennifer Hartley, now an associate at a Houston accounting firm, said her AP courses staved off the boredom of high school.

"These kids all have come from different backgrounds, different experiences," said Mr. O'Donnell, 76. "It shows regardless of their backgrounds, they can be successful if they apply themselves."

Maria's family lives next door to a pawnshop. Across the street, boards cover the broken window of a small cottage-style house typical of the Pleasant Grove neighborhood.

Her father is a carpenter. Her mother stays home to take care of the four children. Maria shares a bedroom with her two sisters and a bed with her youngest sister. As the oldest, she owns the walls. A recent addition is a picture of her senior class beneath a banner from Spruce High School: "Most Likely to Succeed."

The 18-year-old said she didn't always have such high hopes.

"When I got to high school, I had no idea what valedictorian was," she said. "I thought you just graduated from high school, and you got a job."

Maria said she envisioned working in a store, perhaps one like the 7-Eleven visible from her doorstep. Her parents, who came to the United States 20 years ago, still speak little English, so she translates for them during doctors visits or meetings with school officials. As the oldest of four children, she said, she felt responsible for her family and planned to stay nearby to help out.

She never thought much about her future beyond high school until she met Ms. Tyler.

Maria told the English teacher she wasn't going to college. Ms. Tyler recalled shaking her head and saying: "Oh, no, baby, you're going to be with me a little while. We're going to change this. There are all kinds of horizons out there."

Ms. Tyler told Maria about the O'Donnell program – the money for testing fees and the $100 for passing scores. Maria said the money lured her, as did the possibility of earning college credit.

"She was the brightest student I've ever come across," Ms. Tyler said. "She was top-notch. She absorbed everything."

Maria received A's and B's in AP courses and was valedictorian of her class. Although she never passed an AP test, she said the classes made her confident "about the academic stuff" as she heads to college.

Yolanda Rangel, Maria's mother, said she never considered college for her daughter.

"I imagined her graduating from high school, never first in her class or going to college," she said, as Maria translated. "Graduating from high school was good enough."

Now, Mrs. Rangel said, she couldn't be more proud. "I'm real happy that she's going to have more in life than I did."

Ms. Tyler said she has no doubt Maria will succeed.

"My girl, she's going to make it, and she's going to come back and influence the students of this community to go [to college]," Ms. Tyler said.

Maria plans to major in accounting and eventually find a job in business. "This will be the beginning of my dream."

On the way to college

Jennifer O'Neil is a teen with college on her mind every day.

This summer, she traveled across the country with her parents to check out possibilities, including Duke University in North Carolina and Harvard University in Massachusetts.

Over the summer, the 17-year-old read Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment in preparation for her next AP English course.

Education has always been a staple in her life. She and her sisters attended the School for the Talented and Gifted at the Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center. It's the most competitive academic program in the Dallas school district.

"Every time we came home, we had to do our homework. You had to make the grades," Jennifer said. Her parents "wanted us to have better chances than they did."

Her mother, Linda O'Neil, never finished community college.

"I feel I would be a success if she's a success," Mrs. O'Neil said of Jennifer. "I want my kids to go further than I. ... It's possible to be whatever she wants to be."

Jennifer's choice for college is Harvard. Her goal is to become a corporate lawyer. The confidence behind those decisions came from her AP experience, she said.

Although it's rare for sophomores to take AP tests, let alone an AP course, Jennifer took three of them in 10th grade. She passed all three and received $100 for the one course supported by the O'Donnell incentive program. As a junior last year, Jennifer took six AP courses and passed five tests, earning $400 for the four tests under the O'Donnell program.

As a senior this year, Jennifer plans to enroll in six AP courses. The money from the incentive program will make it possible for her to take tests in most of those classes.

The teen is among the top 10 students in her already-competitive high school, said T.S. Abraham, her calculus teacher. He said she's likely to graduate from high school with up to a year of college credit.

"These kids are great inspiration for the other kids coming behind them," Mr. Abraham said.

Finding motivation

Erik Tarpley was academically gifted but unmotivated.

If he didn't like a teacher, he'd refuse to listen and wouldn't do assignments. His grades averaged B's and C's.

"I wasn't trying. It was just a big joke. I got into trouble a lot," Erik recalled.

His parents, wanting to get him on track, sent Erik to private school in St. Louis for half a year when he was a high school sophomore. Instead of doing his homework, he read nearly 1,000 books in the school library.

"I was just like one of the guys trying to get through school," he said.

He returned to Dallas. In his junior year at W.T. White High School in North Dallas, he took the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test, the precursor to the SAT. He got a perfect score in English. Suddenly, the guy who liked to goof off was the center of attention.

"They blew up a poster of me and put it on the wall. I was getting a lot of love for that," Erik said.

Teachers enrolled him in AP courses. He took five courses and passed four tests. He received a 5 – the highest score – on the AP English test. He took the SAT and scored a perfect 800 on the English portion. Colleges began wooing him. He earned $300 from the O'Donnell Foundation.

"His reaction when he got the test scores was, 'Oh, I'm rich,'" said his mother, Joyce Tarpley, an English professor at Mountain View College. "The money certainly put icing on the cake."

Erik said he liked AP courses because they were more challenging.

"The teachers were so into what they were doing. They got so fired up," Erik said.

The classes also sparked his interest in college.

"It was the fear of failure that finally got me," Erik said. "I was scared I was going to end up being nothing."

Erik received college credit from an AP English course and won about $70,000 worth of scholarships to Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., which draws many of its students from the nation's elite private schools.

He is finishing an internship at the Irving office of Hewitt Associates, a national consulting firm. He is considering a career in human resources. Or he may start an Internet company.

At age 20, Erik is finally motivated.

"I just want to be a roaring success," he said.

Staving off boredom

A fifth-grade teacher used to scold Jennifer Hartley for not paying attention in class. She was reading novels squirreled away in her desk.

She was just so bored.

Jennifer hungered for challenges. She took honors classes and rarely struggled for the A's on her report cards. She can remember only one B – for penmanship in second grade.

"It was the most traumatic thing. I was so upset. I cried for ages," she said.

When she reached high school age, her family moved to DeSoto. Her parents enrolled her at the public high school. Private schools, normally their first choice, were too far away.

In her junior year, she enrolled in her first AP class in English. She earned a 5. Her senior year, she took AP English and calculus, scoring a 5 again in English and a 3 in calculus.

"I would have been bored and miserable in high school if I hadn't taken the AP classes," she said.

Her scores allowed her to skip English classes and a semester of calculus at the University of Texas. She also earned $200 from the O'Donnell Foundation.

"It was the best thing in the world to get those checks," she said.

In December, she graduated from UT with a 3.4 GPA and a major in chemical engineering. The 23-year-old is now an associate at Arthur Andersen LLP in Houston, an accounting firm. She uses her engineering expertise to evaluate equipment at chemical companies and petroleum plants.

Sandi Hartley, Jennifer's mother, said that the cost of the AP tests wasn't a problem for the family, and that she doesn't believe the $100 provided much of an incentive. Her daughter has always been a dedicated student, she said.

But by putting the incentive program at DeSoto High, the O'Donnell Foundation pushed the school to offer more challenging courses, Mrs. Hartley said. That is critical for students in DeSoto or Dallas, she said.

"If you don't have a program like that, and you have a child that has the potential, you can lose them," she said.