Another factor (adding to Rick's second point) is that schools and states differ in how many students in a given AP class actually take the AP test. At my daughter's high school some students in AP classes (most of whom I'm sure passed the class) were actively discouraged from taking the AP test. Unless the teacher thought the student had a good chance of doing well on the AP test they were told not to take it. That gives the perception that the AP class is successful because students who take the AP test get a good score (and no one counts the students who did not attempt the AP test). Marie
Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor l Department of Psychology Kaufman 168 l Dickinson College Phone 717.245.1562 l Fax 717.245.1971 Office hours: Monday 10:30-11:30, Tuesday and Wednesday 2:00-3:30 PM http://users.dickinson.edu/~helwegm/index.html -----Original Message----- From: Rick Froman [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2013 1:27 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] The New Phone Book Is HERE!!!! Passing the class and passing the test need to be distinguished. I think the article is discussing the numbers passing the test and I would say that is surprising that such low percentages pass the test (passing the related high school class is another issue). I think both the raw numbers of those taking the test could be relevant (for example, to colleges who may have to offer less sections of certain lower division classes like English I because more students are entering with AP credit for it) and the percentages of those passing (as an indicator of the likelihood of getting college credit for taking an AP class in high school -- it is evidently approaching the odds of getting a particular number on one roll of a die). I think another concern is when a large percentage of students pass the class in the school and a small (or 0) percentage of the class passes the test. I think that is bordering on fraud to offer an AP class , grade at least some of the students' performance in the class as excellent (given the kind of student these honors classes attract) and then find that none of the students pass the test. I know in our state they do advertise the percentage of students in a given AP class that pass the AP test and it varies widely from subject to subject (which turns out to be synonymous with "teacher to teacher"). It is clear which courses are failing to appropriately prepare the students but I don't think many people are aware of that information before taking the class. You can also be sure that nowhere near 70% of students will fail the AP class at their high school and even in Mississippi, 95% of students won't fail the class (or even get a C or lower in it). Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology Box 3519 John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected] (479) 524-7295 http://bit.ly/DrFroman -----Original Message----- From: Mike Palij [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2013 11:18 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Cc: Michael Palij Subject: [tips] The New Phone Book Is HERE!!!! Er, I mean the report for the results for the 2012 AP Exams is here! Given that some Tipsters are involved with the Psychology AP, I thought that there might be some interest in getting the complete report; see: http://apreport.collegeboard.org/download-press-center And here are the result for the psychology AP test; see: http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/rtn/9th-annual/9th-annual-ap-report-subject-supplement-psychology.pdf For those involved with the AP test I have a couple of questions: (1) For the psychology AP test results, the figure makes it appear that the number of students getting a score of 3 or better on the 1-5 grade score is increasing over time. But this assumes that the total for each time point is the same. If one adds up the percent getting 3+ for the four time points, one gets the following: 2002__70.5% scored 3 or higher 2007__65.4% 2011__65.8% 2012__65.7% Am I correct in claiming that the figure is misleading and that instead of "Number of Graduates Taking AP Exams" the "Percentage of Graduates" should be used? Students are doing worse on the Psychology AP exam relative to 2002? (2) I was alerted to the AP report by a news article from the Associated Press (the other AP); see: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hw9tE-c3HvZUjgAkC_w4MzoD17MQ?docId=3e3280e16bd94a608b2bee4fecd04070 The article claims that overall only 1 in 5 or only 20% of the students taking AP courses pass them. Isn't this a terrible pass rate? On page 17 of the report (Figure 2) the state with the highest number of passing scores (i.e., 3 or higher) was Maryland with 29.6% (New York is 2nd with 28%; at the bottom is Mississippi with 4.6 passing rate). I don't understand what the point of an AP class is if 70% will fail it or, in the case of Mississippi, 95% will fail. Are the tests that hard or are out students really that, well, y'know? --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a4468797f&n=T&l=tips&o=23860 or send a blank email to leave-23860-13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a44687...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=23863 or send a blank email to leave-23863-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
