The College Board, a nonprofit association that administers college preparation courses and college entrance exams, is looking at Pittsburgh as a top prospect to host a school devoted entirely to advanced placement classes, according to city school officials.

The New York City-based organization plans to open two such pilot schools -- known as College Board or Advanced Placement schools -- in New York City this fall, and its officials say they are considering expanding into other regions.

Pittsburgh Public Schools Chief of Staff Phil Parr said yesterday that one possible site is Pittsburgh, where three recognized schools using the Switzerland-based International Baccalaureate Organization's programs already give some high school students intense academic preparation for college in a wide range of subjects. The International Baccalaureate classes resemble college freshmen courses in the students' own language, foreign languages, math, social sciences, experimental sciences and the arts.

While open to the possibility of creating a College Board School in Pittsburgh, Education Committee Chairman Patrick Dowd said he would want the school to encourage more girls, poor students and minority students to take advanced placement courses and tests. Otherwise, he said, the current gap in performance between white and minority students and between wealthy and poor students might widen.

"I would want to make sure we're asking questions about racial balance and focusing as a district on improving the number of students taking advanced placement tests," Dowd said. "We would want to make sure we're reducing that gap."

The College Board received $4.4 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last September to create six new College Board schools designed to prepare high school students to pass multiple advanced placement classes before graduation. The grant was part of the foundation's $66.5 million nationwide effort to improve graduation rates, particularly among African-American and Hispanic students, by overhauling large urban high schools and turning them into smaller, more rigorous schools that prepare students for college-level work.

Typically, students pick advanced placement courses in certain subjects that interest them, or in which they are skilled, to prepare for more advanced work in college or to win exemptions from otherwise mandatory college courses. By contrast, the two-year International Baccalaureate program requires students to take rigorous courses in seven subject areas and awards diplomas to those who pass.

About two-thirds of the more than 28,000 students now participating in International Baccalaureate programs in the United States also are taking advanced placement courses, according to Paul Campbell, head of outreach for the program in North America.

The number of students taking International Baccalaureate courses and exams, he said, has increased 10 percent to 15 percent per year in the past decade; more than 33,000 American students are expected to take the classes next year. In Pittsburgh, the organization has approved high school programs at Schenley High School, Upper St. Clair High School and Vincentian Academy.

Giving students the option of attending a College Board School can only improve their chances of getting good preparation for college, Campbell said.