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Scores Down As More Kids Take Advanced Placement Tests
Filed under: In The News
Advanced Placement test scores are down. Credit: sigmaman, Flickr
But as more kids are taking the test, more kids are failing it -- especially in the South.
An analysis by USA Today found that more than two in five students (41.5 percent) failed with a score of 1 or 2. That failure rate is up by 36.5 percent from 1999, the newspaper reports.
In the South -- defined by the Census as the lower half of the United States from Texas to Delaware -- almost half of all students taking the test (48.8 percent) earned a 1 or 2.
Students took a record 2.9 million AP tests last year. The tests see how well high school students do on college-level coursework. Passing the exam with a score of 3 or higher (on a scale of 1 to 5) may earn a student college credit (depending on the college).
USA Today reports that low test scores may suggest schools are pushing students into AP courses without adequate preparation or schools are not training enough teachers to deliver the high-level material.
"The standards don't teach themselves," Stanford University's Linda Darling-Hammond, a teacher-quality expert, tells USA Today.
AP tests should not be treated as "another silver bullet" that will raise standards and assure academic success, she adds.
"You have to build the whole system," she tells the paper. "You can't just bring in one thing and think that it's going to solve everything."
Education sources tell USA Today it's misleading to lump all scores together. Scores on AP physics tests, for example, are up while English literature scores are dropping.
Joan Lord of the Southern Regional Education Board also tells USA Today there's more than meets the eye when it comes to the South's AP scores.
While Arkansas has the country's highest failure rate at 70.3 percent, Lord tells the paper it has made the most progress of any Southern state -- boosting participation among seniors from 11 percent in 2003 to 33 percent in 2008. Meanwhile, the percentage of students who passed at least one AP exam rose from 6 percent to 11 percent.
"We've democratized the test and haven't dropped the scores," Lord tells the paper. "We're excited."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
2-04-2010 @ 5:49PM
jonnyjeb said...Even though the AP's are given in May, Most northern schools have less time to teach the course than many of their southern counterparts. If I am not mistaken, the schools in the south start instruction in August while those in the north do no start until September. Why is is then that the north fairs better?
Reply
2-05-2010 @ 1:51PM
anon said...As a teacher in the south, you're mistaken.
2-04-2010 @ 7:53PM
dr. mama said...I've gotta say we've lost sight of the point of AP exams. The truth is, most high schoolers aren't ready for college level courses, and they shouldn't be taking them.
The democratization of APs hasn't served anyone well.
Reply
2-04-2010 @ 8:31PM
Jim said...It's the South, what do you expect? For history to change?
Reply
2-05-2010 @ 1:52PM
anon said...Such an ignorant statement could only come from a yankee.
2-05-2010 @ 2:00PM
Jim said...@anon (Jessica): It is your statement that is ignorant. You see, there is more to this Country than just North and South. Try looking West idiot. That's where you will find me!
You would think a teacher such as yourself would have known that already. I suppose this could provide an insight into the real problem with the findings of this article.
As for my comment, it was meant in jest. I couldn't imagine anyone with intelligence thinking it to be true. I guess I was right!
2-04-2010 @ 9:21PM
Sara said...It could be that students are now required to take the test where before they did not require students to take the test if they took the AP course.
Reply
2-14-2010 @ 12:15PM
Dezzy said...I went up to Pre-Calc in high school and had to take an 097 class, the remedial, elementary Algebra my first year of college. I wasted my money and got no credit. A similar thing happened to me with Spanish. I HAD to complete two years of a foreign language and doing so means that if you need to take a 101 class at the college level you'll do so without credit. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't force you into these courses. I really think this is one of the worst, unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act. Yeah, it's great you want all high schoolers to learn a language or Geology or something like that but what if the schools don't actually effectively teach these things? It's not like I did bad in those Spanish classes, I passed with bs or higher.
Reply
2-11-2010 @ 10:02PM
sam4444 said...im an AP student and when i took my test it was a little hard. i had to take it over the summer though which was really weird and i had forgotten a lot of the stuff that was taught in the year. i think students are entitled to a study sheet or a list of terms that they will need to know or someting
Reply