[NTA] FW: [eejfi] EducationNews.org: Failure rate for AP tests climbing
- From: "Ericsson, Aprille J. (GSFC-5560)" <aprille.j.ericsson@xxxxxxxx>
- To: undisclosed-recipients:;
- Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2010 04:09:52 -0600
Source/credit: EducationNews.org
<http://www.educationnews.org/author/JimmyKilpatrick/>
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2.5.10 - The number of students taking Advanced Placement tests hit a record
high last year, but the portion who fail the exams — particularly in the South
— is rising as well, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-02-04-1Aapscores04_ST_N.htm>
Failure rate for AP tests
climbing<http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-02-04-1Aapscores04_ST_N.htm>
By Jack Gillum<http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/reporter.aspx?id=252> and
Greg Toppo<http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/reporter.aspx?id=232>, USA
TODAY
The number of students taking Advanced Placement tests hit a record high last
year, but the portion who fail the exams — particularly in the South — is
rising as well, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
Students last year took a record 2.9 million exams through the AP program,
which challenges high school students with college-level courses. Passing the
exams (a score of 3 or higher on the point scale of 1 to 5) may earn students
early college credits, depending on a college's criteria.
The findings about the failure rates raise questions about whether schools are
pushing millions of students into AP courses without adequate preparation — and
whether a race for higher standards means schools are not training enough
teachers to deliver the high-level material.
"The standards don't teach themselves," says Stanford
University<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Schools/Stanford+University>'s
Linda
Darling-Hammond<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Linda+Darling-Hammond>,
a noted teacher-quality expert who says schools shouldn't treat AP as "another
silver bullet" that will raise standards and assure academic success.
"You have to build the whole system. You can't just bring in one thing and
think that it's going to solve everything," she says.
The newspaper's analysis finds that more than two in five students (41.5%)
earned a failing score of 1 or 2, up from 36.5% in 1999. In the South, a
Census-defined region that spans from Texas to Delaware, nearly half of all
tests — 48.4% — earned a 1 or 2, a failure rate up 7 percentage points from a
decade prior and a statistically significant difference from the rest of the
country.
<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Non-profits,+Activist+Groups/College+Board>
College
Board<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Non-profits,+Activist+Groups/College+Board>
officials say it's misleading to lump all scores together, because some tests
have vastly different historical pass rates. Scores on AP Physics tests, for
example, are consistently up; those for AP English Literature are dropping.
The physics success builds through a sequence of courses, says Trevor Packer, a
College Board vice president who oversees AP. He also says enrollment growth
means the raw number of students earning passing scores is climbing, even if
the overall failure rate is up.
Statistical models predicted a rise in failure rates, because students took
about 1.8 million more AP exams last year than in 1999. Typically, standardized
test scores fall as more students — many of them with weaker academic records —
take them.
Once a hallmark of elite, college-bound high schoolers, AP has exploded in the
past decade because of higher student aspirations as well as efforts by
reformers to push students into challenging courses. Enrollment has grown from
about 704,000 students in 1999 to 1.7 million last year.
Data suggest that more students, rewarded by weighted grades and, in some
cases, cash payments, are taking the bait: 76% of AP students sat for an exam
last spring, up from 66% in 2000.
Joan Lord of the Southern Regional Education Board says there's more than meets
the eye to the South's AP results. For instance, while College Board data show
Arkansas has the USA's highest failure rate (70.3%), she says it has made the
most progress of any Southern state, boosting participation among seniors from
11% in 2003 to 33% in 2008. And the percentage of students who passed at least
one AP exam rose from 6% to 11%.
"We've democratized the test and haven't dropped the scores," Lord says. "We're
excited."
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