If you're discouraged by indications that our high school students are trailing way behind their international counterparts in math and science achievement, take heart. A recent study shows that those students who master Advanced Placement physics and calculus outperform the highest achieving physics and advanced math students from the 18 countries surveyed.

The current study, which was released by the College Board, is a follow-up to the 1995 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). That study--thought to be the largest, most comprehensive and rigorous international comparison of student achievement of its time--raised grave concern in education circles because U.S. students lagged so far behind their international peers. At the time, the College Board noted that a very small percentage of the students tested in 1995 had been enrolled in AP calculus or physics courses.

In the follow-up study, conducted from May through July of last year, a representative sample of AP physics and calculus students took the same test as was administered five years ago to the other students. The AP students outperformed all advanced and honors students in the United States as well as those from 18 Western and Eastern European countries.

These results support the message that the AFT and other education reformers are trying to send to high school and middle school students--that rigor in the courses students choose in high school and their willingness to work hard make all the difference in how well students are prepared for college and their careers. This is the theme of the AFT publication Hard Work Pays: What You Have To Do in High School To Get the Life You Want. It can be downloaded from www.aft.org/reports/.

The message is getting through. High schools are facing increasing demands for a range of AP offerings. In fact, in some districts, parents have gone to court to protest the inequitable, perhaps discriminatory, range of AP classes available.

In 43 percent of U.S. high schools, AP courses are not offered. This has created an opening for companies like the for-profit Apex Learning, to offer AP courses online, reports University Business magazine in its September 2001 issue. The article notes that colleges and universities will want to pay attention to this development and participate in shaping who offers what and to whom.

Public policy hot buttons for 2001-02

Every two years, the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) tries to give its members--the nation's higher education trustees--a heads-up on the issues with which state and federal governments soon will be wrestling. To keep you one step ahead of your leaders, here is a random list of some of the things they might be thinking about while you're trying to get them to focus on academic priorities:

1. Tax cuts and the federal budget. Changes to the tax code and shifting federal priorities could offer a host of what the AGB calls "mixed blessings" to higher education. The AFT's Revenue and Taxation Task Force casts the changes in gloomier terms, warning that states could lose as much as $37 billion from the repeal of the estate tax alone.

2. Economic slowdown. The stagnating economy could lead state legislatures to target savings from their favorite discretionary chopping block--public higher education. Look for talk of tuition and fee hikes.

3. Affirmative action. Mixed signals from different court systems on the legality of affirmative action programs have made it hard for institutions to know how to proceed. This issue is on a straight route to the Supreme Court.

4. Student aid. As education costs increase and the value of aid shrinks, society has to come to terms with its level of commitment to the ideals of access and opportunity for all qualified students.

5. Economic and work force development. Communities expect higher education to boost economic development, and the business world wants workers ready to deliver at the time of hire.

6. Information technology. Another "access" issue, institutions must keep up with the latest technology and reduce the barriers that might limit growth.

7. Teacher training and quality. What leader doesn't have this on his or her list of priorities? Why does teacher training continue to be relegated to a low status at so many institutions?

8. Public perception of higher education. Despite the fact that U.S. higher education is viewed as the best system in the world, institutions must stay attuned to how the public perceives they are meeting society's need.

9. Standards, accountability and high-stakes testing. The preK-12 reform movement is resonating in higher education as well.

10. Intercollegiate athletics. How to maintain a balanced view of a program that inspires irrational but highly marketable obsessions?