In most school districts, as access to and participation in Advanced Placement exams have gone up, the exam passing rates have gone down. But that isn't always the case. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, looking to identify urban districts with promising trends in student achievement and college-readiness, analyzed four years of AP exam participation and passing rates for students in the 75 districts whose demographics qualify them for consideration for the annual Broad Prize for Urban Education. It found six districts where African-American students were improving their passing rates while keeping participation levels steady. This report illustrates some of the promising practices contributing to AP success in these six districts.

New Teacher Center worked collaboratively with nine state coalitions - including governors, state education agencies, teacher associations, stakeholder groups and practitioners - to implement the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) survey statewide in nine states from the spring of 2012 to the spring of 2103. The TELL survey is a full-population survey of school-based licensed educators designed to report the perceptions about the presence of teaching and learning conditions that research has shown increase student learning and teacher retention.

The conditions assessed in the TELL survey include:

• Time
• Facilities and Resources
• Professional Development
• School Leadership
• Teacher Leadership
• Instructional Practices and Support
• Managing Student Conduct
• Community Support and Involvement
• New Teacher Support (for teachers in their first three years in the profession)

This report compares the results of the TELL survey at the state level across the country, providing an additional contextual lens for interpreting the results from each participating state to better understand their own findings.