When offering students the chance to earn college credit in high school, districts across the country often look to the College Board’s Advanced Placement program or the International Baccalaureate.
But a small but growing number of districts also turn to the University of Cambridge’s international education program, which originated from the prestigious university in the United Kingdom.
The pathway program comes in four stages, including two high school stages, one of which can allow students to receive college credit for universities across the United States, said Mark Cavone, the regional director for Cambridge International Education in North America.
Cavone and Matthew Kaye, the North American head of policy, accountability, and partnerships for the organization, spoke with Education Week about what the program offers U.S. students and how it continues to grow in the country.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What does the Cambridge International Education program offer American high school students, especially in terms of postsecondary preparation?
Cavone: A lot of times, districts offer Cambridge, IB, and AP, because we started [in the U.S.] based on the choice movement in the South. A lot of schools were losing kids, we call it the brain drain, and they thought Cambridge was a really good option to keep kids in the district.
I think what we really offer is probably some of the most rigorous coursework in America that culminates in a lot of college credit, and students trying advanced coursework for the first time.
Some of our courses are great foundational courses. Getting a passing grade on Cambridge, AP, or IB, it’s kind of a proxy for college readiness. Our goal is to get as many kids college- and career-ready by the time they leave high school, and passing a Cambridge course that culminates in university credit is a major goal.
[Cambridge has] a mastery-based assessment. And so, just like in college, you’re going to have your blue book, we’re going to go look for points. We’ve heard it’s a little bit fairer and more equitable, maybe for students [who] aren’t first-language English speakers. I think in the South, we probably serve more low-income and minority students than our competitors. We have about 70-plus courses. Many of them are unique.
Kaye: As a former practitioner, I still run into students all the time, and they’ll say things like, “Man, I just did so well in college because I really learned how to write academically, I really learned how to study, or I really learned how to approach thinking at a collegiate level thanks to those Cambridge courses.”
Our students have shown, through partnership research, that they’re thriving at the university level. They graduate on great timelines, and they’re exceeding the average population of those universities. They’re doing extremely well in subsequent courses.
How has the Cambridge program grown in the United States?
Cavone: We started in the late 90s, and we’ve grown to about 25 states. We’re serving a lot of kids that weren’t being served before: a lot of low-income, non-white, minority students.
We really developed in the South, in Florida first. I started here [with Cambridge] 11 years ago, coming from the College Board. I was brought in to run the North American region. I started with about seven staff, and now we have about 45 reporting into the university, about 800 schools right now, 25-plus states. But really, our foothold was in Florida to start, based on school choice and keeping kids in their home districts.
Ninety-five plus percent of what we do is with public school districts. We really like that, because the university really cares about lifting achievement for all kids.
How does the Cambridge program work with American schools to ensure all students have equitable access?
Kaye: I was a senior director of accountability for the school district of Lee County [in Florida]. In implementing it in our district, we found that the real beauty of the Cambridge program was [that] you could do it schoolwide and have really every single student have an opportunity to earn those college-level courses, to go for it, and then as they continued down that pathway, say, “Look, if you’re experiencing success, you can keep going.”
Cavone: We really promote open access. Some schools will want to treat it as a magnet [program]. We don’t love that. But we believe that curriculum is a local construct, and it’s really up to the states or the districts to figure out how they want to serve their local community.
How does the Cambridge program navigate policy concerns and schools’ involvement with DEI efforts?
(Editor’s note: In the last few years, the College Board, one of Cambridge’s competitors in the United States, faced controversies over new courses such as AP African American Studies. Even IB programs have had to navigate policy changes in Florida.)
Cavone: We’re in 160 countries. We have to be flexible, and it’s paramount to meet local requirements, needs, norms, [and] customs. The Cambridge pathway always includes the ability to align courses and local standards with content requirements.
Whether it’s a red state or a blue state, it doesn’t really matter, because we’ve been able to navigate both, because we see those environments across the world.
