State high schools log on for AP courses

(Correction: Because of incorrect information provided by the state Department of Education, a graphic accompanying a Page One story Monday about online Advanced Placement classes was incorrect. Canton High School last school year offered 10 Advanced Placement classes, and was wrongly included in a list titled: ''High schools with one AP class.")

A growing number of Massachusetts high schools in urban and poorer areas are adding online Advanced Placement courses to catch up with schools in wealthier communities that offer more than a dozen college-level courses in their classrooms.

Next school year, students in Boston, Brockton, Lawrence, Fall River, and Somerville will take AP classes online, following the lead of students from New Bedford, Springfield, Worcester, and Ware. Some schools trying online AP classes offer only a few AP subjects in the classroom or none at all because they cannot afford to hire the needed teachers.

A quarter of the state's 316 high schools, including charter schools, did not offer AP courses in the 2004-05 school year, according to a Globe review of state Department of Education data. Of those that do, the average number of subjects available is seven. Boston Latin School leads the state with 22 AP subjects, including Latin literature, music theory, and computer science.

School administrators say the online classes, taught over the Internet by teachers the students will never meet, are the quickest way to give students access to rigorous classes in a variety of subjects. Considered some of the toughest classes available in high school, Advanced Placement courses on a high school transcript can boost students' chances of getting into college, help develop critical thinking skills to succeed in college, and allow them to earn college credit.

For a listing of numbers of advanced placement courses, see Boston.com/globe.

But some say the virtual courses are a poor substitute for the face-to-face AP experience widely available to students in affluent suburbs and prestigious exam schools like Boston Latin.

''At first glance, this seems like a really nice solution for schools, but I worry that online courses are not as good at engaging students who don't yet have confidence in [their] college potential," said Trevor Packer, executive director of the College Board's Advanced Placement program. ''I worry about the loss of dialogue between a student and a teacher that is at the heart of classroom discussions."

Instead of a fast, free-flowing discussion on literary themes in an hourlong AP English seminar, students in an online class may post their thoughts on a virtual bulletin board that classmates are required to log onto regularly, but not at the same time. A discussion can take hours or days, which online proponents say can be more thoughtful than a traditional classroom discussion.

In Massachusetts, online AP students will take classes from the Maynard-based Virtual High School, a global consortium of about 300 schools. Two years ago, Virtual High, one of about 20 providers of online classes in the nation, received a federal grant to increase AP courses in the nation's poorest schools as part of a push to expand college-level offerings to traditionally underserved students.

Students in Massachusetts will take the classes for free; schools pay an average membership fee of $6,500 a year to join the nonprofit consortium, but schools that received federal grants pay nothing.

TechBoston Academy, a 320-student high school that formed three years ago out of Boston's once-struggling Dorchester High School, has no AP classes. It will begin offering online AP classes in the fall, hoping to get all students to take at least one college-level course before they graduate, said headmaster Mary Skipper.

''The more students take academic risks and stretch their minds while still in high school, the easier the college transition will be," Skipper said.

While Boston plans to expand online classes to more high schools, the district also is pursuing grants to train teachers so it can increase AP offerings in the classroom, said Chris Coxon, Boston's deputy superintendent for teaching and learning.

''Anytime we can have kids in front of teachers and interacting with other kids, learning is going to be more fruitful," Coxon said. ''But in lots of places, this is the next best thing."

The College Board administers exams in 34 AP courses in 19 subject areas. Virtual High offers 15 AP courses online, taught by high school teachers from across the country.

Brockton High School, the state's largest high school with 4,300 students, now offers AP classes in seven subjects, including biology, English, calculus, and US history; only 100 students took them last school year. While Boston Latin offers six AP foreign language subjects, Brockton High has none.

Many university majors require students to take a foreign language, and those with AP credit often can leap ahead or meet the requirement before entering college. The more AP credits students earn, the quicker they can finish college and save money.

''We want to offer them challenging opportunities that students in wealthier districts have," said Maria LeFort, an associate principal at Brockton High. ''A lot of these kids will be the first in their families to graduate from high school. In many cases, we are their ticket to a better life, and it's our obligation to provide them any opportunities that we can to give them that."

Just 11 Brockton High students have signed up to take Spanish, statistics, economics, and chemistry through Virtual High starting in September.

Any time of the day they choose, Virtual High's AP students log on to a website and do such work as simulating the dissection of a pig in biology, performing a chemistry experiment, or discussing Dickens with peers from around the world.

Brockton High principal Susan Szachowicz said she worries about how students will do when they take such rigorous courses online and whether they'll stick with the course.

Maria Mendes, who will be a senior at Brockton High this fall, signed up to take AP Spanish online because she already completed the highest level of Spanish offered at school.

Mendes said she likes the flexibility of an online class and is not worried about pacing herself -- she took a time management class designed for students who will be the first in their families to attend college.

Zach Portman, who took an online AP biology class at Natick High School last school year, said his class of 21 students dwindled to half by midyear. The course was one of the hardest he has ever taken because of the amount of work, the 17-year-old said.

Students who dropped out, Portman said, tended to be those ''who didn't pull their own weight" in group projects and who didn't show up for the class online discussions.

Packer of the College Board said that rather than offering online AP as a quick fix, schools should invest their money in teacher training so that freshmen and sophomores are prepared to take AP classes in their junior and senior years.

Online classes tend to draw already high-achieving students who are self-motivated and self-directed, Packer said.

Liz Pape, CEO of Virtual High, said the consortium has added pre-AP courses to prepare students from low-income families to take the college-level classes.

Online classes will be a necessity for years to come because the gap between the haves and have-nots continues to widen, said William Fitzsimmons, Harvard University's dean of admissions and financial aid. Students' AP exam results are the top predictor of how well they do at Harvard -- above their scores on the SAT or their high school grades, he said -- and the accessibility of online classes helps level the playing field.

Szachowicz, principal of Brockton High, agreed.

''Many times, our kids sell themselves short. The first time they run up against a wall, they say, 'No, no, that's too hard,' " she said.

''The more challenges they face, the more prepared for college they're going to be."

Globe correspondent Bill Dedman contributed to this report.Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.