Abstract
Teachers, by their very nature, often try to make use of all instructional time available to them in order to better prepare their students. Advanced Placement (AP) teachers, who are teaching a course designed to give high school students an opportunity to experience college-level work before they move on to their respective universities, are among those who look to utilize all possible time provided to them. The course culminates with the AP exams each May, so teachers utilize all possible time to ensure that their students are fully prepared for those exams. The purpose of this study was to examine the results of student performance on AP exams when additional instructional time was provided for teachers in the classroom, especially with regards to the performance of high ability students on these exams. The aim of the study was to compare the AP test scores of students before and after the additional instructional time was provided to the teachers. The study took place at a private high school in the northeast United States over two school years. After all results were calculated, the study found that there was a small significant difference between the two years, with a decrease in average score between the two groups. Yet, when examining the bottom quartile of test takers, as the literature indicated that they would be most helped by the change, there was no noted change between the two groups. While this study was only conducted over two school years, further research may provide additional insight as teachers learn to better utilize the increase in instructional time provided to them. Finally, as a proposed solution, teachers may benefit from professional learning communities (PLCs) which could help them better develop their practice as teachers under the new time model.|Keywords: Advanced Placement (AP), instructional time, high ability student, professional learning communities (PLCs)