When last year’s AP scores were released, I had just come out of a week of backpacking in the Pacific Northwest—no Wi-Fi, no email, just miles of trail and a lot of time to think. Along the way, I listened to Endure by Alex Hutchinson, and one story in particular stuck with me: Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile.
As Hutchinson shared, for decades, running a mile in under four minutes was considered impossible. Thousands of athletes had tried. Nothing about human physiology suddenly changed. No new technology was created. But in 1954, Roger Bannister broke the barrier and once he did, hundreds followed. What had once been “impossible” became achievable, simply because people had seen it done. Expectations shifted. Permission was granted.
That story was still in my head when my phone came back to life and started buzzing with messages: “AP scores dropped.”
During the 2023–24 school year, with the support of Impact Florida’s Opportunity Cadre, Atlantic Coast High School committed to Universal AP with a simple but bold goal: to create as much access to Advanced Placement coursework for our ninth graders as our schedule would allow. I knew this shift carried real risk, and that responsibility ultimately rested with me as principal.
For a moment, my heart sank. The year before, we had eliminated honors courses, opened AP Human Geography to every ninth grader, and replaced Honors Precalculus with AP Precalculus. It was a big swing and there was no guarantee it would work.
But as I read further, I realized no one was panicking. They were celebrating. “Dropped” didn’t mean scores declined; it meant they were available. And the results told a powerful story. Nearly 65% of our ninth graders had enrolled in AP, tripling our enrollment from two years prior. Our students had shown up—and our scores were up.
That moment affirmed what I believed coming off the trail: our kids can do hard things if they see that it’s possible. Once students experience a college-level challenge and realize they can meet that challenge, the ceiling disappears.
The risk we took wasn’t about perfection. It was about participation. And like the four-minute mile, once the barrier was broken, a whole new world opened.
How we started: building the plane while we flew it
The idea wasn’t complicated: Every ninth grader would take AP Human Geography. We weren’t chasing pass rates. We were chasing access and opportunity. According to researchers, students who take advanced courses are more likely to graduate, earn college degrees, and experience economic mobility. In reality, students are counted out of advanced coursework—either through low adult expectations or their own self doubt—and it is extremely difficult to get those students back on track.
There’s a sign in my office that says, “Comfort is a slow death.” That became our mindset. We wanted students to tackle hard reading, learn the language of AP questions and know they belonged in the room. We wanted them to learn that they can do difficult things.
Our first universal AP teacher was the right person for the job: multilingual, reflective and determined to show students that they belong in advanced courses. Some colleagues were skeptical at first, and I get it. A few wondered if it could really work. But we paired our universal AP teacher with the magnet AP Human Geo teacher, gave them time to plan together and kept naming the “why”—belonging, access and expectations. Over time, the skeptics started to see what was possible. Our team got on board, because everyone on our team cares about student success.
Results that changed minds
When we looked at the data, it confirmed that when you open doors, students go places they never imagined. Some worried that expanding AP access to all students would mean a decline in school-wide AP scores. The fact that scores went up as we increased participation speaks volumes to the power of this change.
Here’s what we saw, by the numbers:
- More students in the work. We administered 1,930 AP exams, the most in Duval County Public School’s history. In universal AP Human Geography, around 65% of ninth graders enrolled. For many, just taking the course was a milestone, and that was worth celebrating. This school year, we’re on track to hit 2,265 AP exams—a new school and district record for comprehensive public high school—with around 70% of ninth graders enrolled.
- Schoolwide growth. Our overall AP pass rate went from 66% to 71% even as participation increased. We can’t highlight this enough times: Skeptics of this policy had feared the scores would drop, and the scores went up!
- Universal AP gains. Year 1 pass rate was 6.5%; Year 2 climbed to nearly 22% – steady improvement from a much broader base.
- Across student groups. The Universal AP program led to a 300% increase in freshman enrollment in AP courses and created new pathways for student success. In a 4-year period, we saw an increase of students achieving a 3+ on AP exams: 125% for Black students and 133% for Hispanic students.
Scores aren’t the only measure of success, but they helped quiet the idea that expanding access means lowering outcomes. In reality, we saw both: more students participating and more students excelling.
When you’re testing more kids than any other year in your school’s history—and still seeing scores rise—that’s not a small shift. That’s a culture change you can feel in the building. But even if the numbers hadn’t moved, our “why” would still be the same. The goal was never just higher scores. It was stronger skills, confidence, and opportunity for every student.
A transformation in student mindsets
The most powerful proof wasn’t in the numbers. I saw it in what students began to believe about themselves. One student, who had arrived from Venezuela only six months earlier, jumped straight into AP Human Geography. Her original goal was simply to graduate high school. After completing that course—sitting for the test, holding her own and realizing she could do hard things—she started talking about college.
Hearing her say she was considering college was everything. Everything. She’s now on an AP track, having earned college credit for two courses as only a junior.
For many students, especially those reading below grade level, AP Human Geo became a place to build reading stamina, academic vocabulary and confidence that carried into later coursework. That same year, we saw our highest ELA proficiency ever. This is not small stuff. This matters, and it will have lifelong implications for our students.
Want to expand opportunity? Here’s the advice I’d give fellow leaders.
I knew that getting my staff’s buy-in would need to start with info-gathering. First, we figured out whether the schedule and budget could handle it – and then we moved forward.
We prioritized our family communication, too. At freshman orientation, I told families: The AP on your students’ schedule isn’t a mistake. We believe you belong here, and we will support you each step of the way. Students’ families saw our passion for supporting success, and they stayed on board.
We kept investing in the culture: pairing teachers to plan, looking at interim data and running a voluntary staff book study on Hidden Potential. Over time, even our strongest skeptics began seeing all students as AP-bound. That’s what culture change looks like.
I know many of my fellow leaders are considering expanding access to honors coursework, and here is what I’d tell you:
- Start now. If you believe it’s right for kids, don’t wait. Get moving.
- Hire and protect the right teachers. Find educators who understand the importance of building relationships with students, and the importance of individual 1-on-1 feedback throughout the course. Most importantly, find educators who believe the same thing you do: that opportunity for every student is worth working for.
- Name the “why” publicly. Make it clear that every student belongs in spaces of high expectation.
- Measure what matters. Track participation, sit-rates, pass-rates and progression into higher AP courses, and celebrate participation as much as proficiency. Some colleagues are moved by stories, some are moved by data. Having these numbers is crucial to getting everyone on board.
- Add seats. Don’t reshuffle them. We’re not taking any seats away in our AP courses when we open doors for students who wouldn’t have historically signed up. We’re just finding ways, budgetarily, to build more.
What’s next
We’re continuing to expand, adding AP Computer Science Principles for freshmen and maintaining our work in AP Precalculus. The question now is about the long arc: how this early access will shape who signs up, who sticks with it and who begins to see themselves as an “AP student.” I want every student to see advanced coursework as a logical step in their high school journey.
Two years in, opening access didn’t dilute excellence. It multiplied it. When more students walk through the door, more discover what they can do. And when adults build the systems and supports to match, the whole school starts to see what’s possible.