Okay, can someone tell me why we have AP courses if (a) one is
not required to take the AP exam if one takes the AP course, and
(b) performance on AP test is so bad while, presumably, the
students taking the AP course are doing well or at least passing
the course? Doesn't this mean that students are just taking up
space while in the course?
Isn't this, oh, what's the word, let me see, uh, UNETHICAL?
Shouldn't these students and schools be using the course time more
productively? Back in the middle of the last century, I went to a
NY high school and one could take "Regents" courses which, if
passed, would allow one to take the Regents standardized exam
in the subject and, if passed, get (a) a "Regents" diploma (signifying
achievement above average levels) and (b) a Regents scholarship
that one could use for paying college costs (I got one and the
money came directly to me instead of the college -- needless to
say, this was a great incentive to do well in the Regents courses and
exams though things seemed to have changed since when I took
them; for more on the Regent exam, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_exam ).
Is this a case of everyone just making believe that the educational
king is a sharp dressed man while naked as a jaybird?
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
On Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:16:57 -0800, Helweg-Larsen, Marie wrote:
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
-----Original Message-----
On Wednesday, February 20, 2013 1:27 PM, Rick Froman wrote:
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).
-----Original Message-----
On Wednesday, February 20, 2013 11:18 AM, Mike Palij wrote:
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?
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