Grantee Spotlight: Equal Opportunity Schools

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Founded in 2010, Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS) aims to increase access to Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate (AP/IB) classes for what they call “missing students.” These are students who have the capability for advanced coursework but are not enrolled in those classes.

A recent report titled Finding America’s Missing AP and IB Students, published with EdTrust and coauthored by EOS executive director Reid Saaris, calculates that approximately 614,000 eligible students are not enrolled in AP courses, and low-income students account for nearly 468,000 (76%) of those empty seats. Nationally, AP participation of low-income students is 5.5% compared with 15.6% of their higher income peers. According to the report, upgrading their classes may be the single best way to boost high school and college graduation rates and improve their opportunities.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s grants have enabled EOS to double the number of high schools served and attract the attention of Google. EOS won a Google Global Impact Award to greatly expand their work and conduct a rigorous evaluation with the Harvard Education Innovation Laboratory.

Hear from EOS executive director Reid Saaris, students, and educators about Equal Opportunity Schools’ work through these short two-minute videos.

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