Middle school teachers to get Pre-AP training

The West Bloomfield School District is planning on initiating Pre-AP training for the district’s middle school teachers beginning in the 2011-12 school year.

Pre-AP training is provided by The College Board, a non-profit organization headquartered in New York City with regional offices across the country that runs the ACT college entrance exam.

“We are planning to bring The College Board in,” said Dr. Robert Martin, the school district’s assistant superintendent for instruction. “We firmly agree with the training and we’ll move in that direction. Therefore, our teachers can reach our students better with strategies.”

Martin said that the training is a “multiple-day, multiple-year training,” and that it will take place during the day, which will require substitute teachers to fill in when needed.

He added that the district is also considering new textbooks in the middle school curriculum and that it’s looking to increase the number of algebra students in the district’s middle schools, as well as more after-school enrichment.

Currently, there is also a petition online at ipetitions.com that was set up by township resident Elizabeth Cannella calling for a Pre-AP curriculum for sciences, math, English, humanities, languages, technology and arts in the district’s middle schools beginning in the 2012-13 school year.

So far, 174 signatures have been garnered.