Cheryl Napoli, co‑chair of the Advanced Academics Program Advisory Committee, presented the council’s recommendations to the School Board, urging earlier and more consistent academic planning and expanded access to advanced coursework.

The committee’s top recommendation is a 6‑year academic planning and course selection pathway beginning in middle school so students and families can identify prerequisite sequences earlier. “One of the things that we wanted to recommend was to enhance the student and parent counseling on AP, IB and DE options beginning in middle school,” Napoli said.

Why it matters: Committee members said students who do not enter prerequisite sequences early can be shut out of advanced courses by the time they reach junior and senior year. The council recommended using the district’s existing tools (for example, Naviance) in a more robust, shareable way so students and parents can view and edit multi‑year plans.

Other recommendations include: encouraging each high school to offer at least one AP or IB course as a standard course replacement, expanding dual‑enrollment opportunities and incentives for teacher credentialing to grow the DE instructor pool, and creating student cohort/mentorship networks inside schools to manage stress and support mental wellness for students enrolled in rigorous programs.

The committee also urged measures to sustain rigor while expanding access: collect and review AP/IB outcomes (exam scores vs. in‑class GPA), and offer targeted supports where performance is lower.

Committee members cited school examples where offering a standard AP replacement (for example, AP Human Geography or AP Seminar as an English‑10 replacement) increased access without lowering overall division pass rates. Members noted Fairfax’s recent growth in AP participation and that higher enrollment had not driven the exam‑pass rate down divisionwide.

The committee reported it voted to finalize recommendations on May 20 and asked that the division explore incentives and partnerships — including with NOVA and local universities — to streamline teacher credentialing for DE instruction and to explore structured pathways that allow students to earn an associate’s degree in their final two years of high school.

Next steps: The committee recommended the School Board direct staff to (1) pilot a 6‑year planning tool accessible to parents, (2) create teacher credential incentives for DE expansion, and (3) report back on how expanded access affects exam outcomes and student wellness.