Greenville site makes AP training more convenient
By Kelly Soderlund, The Daily Reflector
Tuesday, July 05, 2005

High school AP teachers east of I-95 are logging less drive time this year to attend training in Pitt County, and officials think the shorter distance will help combat a shortage of prepared educators.

For the first year, advanced placement teachers in the area didn't have to drive to Charlotte, Virginia or Wake Forest to attend seminars on preparing to teach AP courses. With $5,000 of endowment money in hand, East Carolina University is sponsoring two weeks of training at South Central High School for 98 teachers.

"We have not had one east of Raleigh at all," said Margaret Wirth, director of the AP Institute and instructor in ECU's department of math and science education. "We've either had to go five hours to Charlotte or we've gone to Virginia. It's really been a problem."

AP courses allow high school juniors and seniors to take college-level classes in hopes of scoring well on a year-end exam to receive college credit for their work. Many students will enter their freshman year of college with several credit hours already under their belt.

"You're talking about going a lot faster because you've got to cover more," Wirth said. "It's demanding. In an AP class, it's very fast-paced and a little more advanced material."

The institute, which trains teachers in biology, calculus, environmental science, statistics, U.S. government and U.S. history, is required by many school systems.

"A lot of AP teachers, their principals and their administrators say, 'you can't teach it unless you go to an institute some place. We want you to be trained,'" Wirth said.

Many school systems will pay the registration fee but not for hotel or airline tickets, Wirth said. Now that the training is within driving distance, Wirth expects more teachers in the area to get trained on teaching AP courses.

"It's hard to get, in a school, somebody to teach AP because it's demanding," Wirth said. "You've got to be on your toes and you've got to do a lot of work and a lot of research and you've got to stay on top of your subject. A lot of teachers won't teach it."

Wirth taught AP statistics and calculus at J.H. Rose High for 11 years. She remembers flying to Atlanta to attend a training session. Pitt County Schools paid for her flight, but she had to pay for everything else.

Many of the teachers who are going through the training – which started June 27 and runs through Friday – have little or no experience teaching AP courses.

"In every group, there was maybe one to two people who had never taught it and knew they were going to have to next year and were scared to death," Wirth said. "The far majority had taught it maybe one year or more and knew they needed help. A lot of them came in what you'd call 'experienced' but maybe really not confident."

Anne McClung has taught in Pitt County for 17 years but only started teaching AP courses last year. She couldn't attend a training session last year because she got married around the same time.

"It's one thing that I felt like I needed to go through in order to successfully teach the course," McClung said. "I think you can teach a course without going through the training, but you gain so much – the experience, the camaraderie from the instructors, just their insight, their helpful hints. I wouldn't have gotten that any other place than through this training."

As part of the $75 registration fee, teachers received a binder filled with lesson plans, textbooks and supplies.

"People said they never got so much for their money," Wirth said.

The institute was made possible through an annual endowment from Charles and Nancy Bedford. They donated $5,000 for this year and will donate $2,500 annually from now on.

Charles is an ECU alum and was the southern regional director for the College Board, which oversees AP courses.

Kelly Soderlund can be contacted at ksoderlund@coxnews.com and 329-9568