The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which has been investing heavily in personalized learning, has formed a partnership with the College Board to expand access for low-income and rural students to college preparation and planning tools such as Advanced Placement courses in STEM fields, and free online study for the SAT.
The two-year partnership, announced Tuesday, will channel an undisclosed sum from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative—led by Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan—to the College Board to use to support a suite of related projects aimed at building college readiness in underserved communities.
Some of the money will support expanded work by the College Advising Corps, which uses recent college graduates to support and guide high school students as they make their transitions to college. The partnership will enable the College Advising Corps to reach more students in California, Michigan, Illinois and Texas, according to College Board spokesman Zach Goldberg.
Three other organizations will be part of the partnership, too: the National Rural Education Association, the Council of the Great City Schools, and The New Teacher Project. They’ll work to expand schools’ use of the PSAT, which can give students feedback about their potential to succeed to AP courses; to get the College Board’s AP Computer Science Principles and other AP courses in STEM fields offered in more schools, and to expand students’ use of SAT preparation through the Khan Academy, Goldberg said.
A related slice of the partnership will focus on research into academic motivation. Angela Duckworth, a University of Pennsylvania professor who founded the Character Lab, and Greg Walton, of Stanford University, will conduct studies designed to better tailor those college-readiness supports, Goldberg said.
A spokeswoman from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative declined to specify how much money the organization will provide to the College Board for the partnership.