The Virginian-Pilot
©
SUFFOLK
Fewer than a quarter of the Advanced Placement exams taken this spring by students in city schools received a score that was considered passing - a figure Suffolk school officials say they're committed to improving.
Instructional services staff and teachers have come up with eight recommendations to improve AP exam performance. They include requiring students to pay for the tests, with those earning a score of 3, 4 or 5 being reimbursed. Any recommendations the School Board approves would go into effect next school year.
"I asked for the study because I wanted to have some changes made," said board member Michael Debranski. He said he supports every recommendation except the one requiring students to pay for the tests.
The school division has 10 college-level AP offerings. A score of 3 or higher on an end-of-year AP exam means the test-taker is qualified for college credit or advanced standing.
More students are enrolling in AP classes, but not enough are taking the related exams seriously, said Superintendent Milton Liverman.
"If the students are going to take that type of attitude," said board member William Whitley, "then that's why I raised the question that I did: Are we really getting our money's worth out of this?"
This year, 102 of the 441 AP tests taken by Suffolk Public Schools students received a 3 or higher - a pass rate of about 23 percent. That figure was about 59 percent statewide and 57 percent nationwide, according to the College Board, the organization that develops the AP exams.
Overall, the performance on AP exams didn't reflect the grades earned in those classes, Deputy Superintendent Deran Whitney told the School Board. A disproportionate number of students received an A or B.
That's an indication that "something's wrong," Whitley said.
The school division awards weighted credit for each AP class students take - meaning extra points are added to their grade point average, no matter how they perform on AP exams. To motivate students, staff and teachers recommended changing that policy so that weighted credit goes only to those who earn a 3 or higher on the exams.
Other recommendations:
- Adding mandatory summer training for all AP teachers until the average test score is 3 or higher.
- Increasing collaboration between honors and AP teachers so students have the proper foundation for AP courses.
Liverman said he agrees with all the measures except asking students to pay for the exams, which he said might discourage students from taking an AP course. The division currently covers the $86 cost per exam.
He has asked board members to decide on which recommendations to implement by January.
Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562, hattie.brown@pilotonline.com
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Why is this a problem?
I really don't see a high fail rate on an advanced placement a problem. On the other hand, trying to artificially improve those numbers by putting a financial disincentive to taking the test is a serious problem. That's something slimy politicians would do and should not even occur to educators.
Quoting a great judge
"The world needs ditch diggers too."
It's far too easy to simply
It's far too easy to simply blame the teachers. Yes, there are a few bad teachers out there but, most of them try hard and given the current environment I don't know why any of them bother. Thankfully, they do. We will never be able to make all the kids and all the kids parents care enough to actually read a book. Never have and never will. The problem, as I see it, is that there simply are not enough manufacturing jobs anymore in this country to absorb all the kids that will never be able to do much more than manual labor and there are plenty of them. Where are the GE plants, Ford plants, steel mills, and the factories that everything in Walmart comes from. Not here! Suffolk can't even figure out why the CenterPoint facility is important.
you get what you pay for
The low pay of teachers virtually ensures a low-quality work force. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the SAT scores of education majors is the lowest of any declared major. Are SAT scores the only measure of academic potential? Of course not. It is, however, somewhat ironic that people going into a profession requiring the administration of tests are so bad at taking them themselves.
continued..
Students are trained to pass the test but not retain the information for future application. Instead the older material has a tendency to be forgotten in favor of the new material presented in the classroom. This is not the fault of the teacher so much as it is a point that parents and teachers should attempt to teach students the need to retain information for future application!
The article suggests training teachers during the summer to strengthen the teachers so more students might pass the AP exams. This idea points to the teachers as being at fault for those students who do not pass the AP exam. But what about the success stories where studetns, who sat in the same classes and were given the same coursework DID pass the AP exam! This clearly shows it isnt a teacher issue, but a student issue.
If NO students passed above the score of 3, then it is reasonable to examine the quality of instruction, but as the article points out, there are students scoring 3s and higher. Those analyzing the problem should look more closely to student academic behavior
The students already pay for the tests
You don't have to pay to take the CLASS--but you must for the test and the college credits--that's how it is in Beach and Chesapeake...
And the previous poster is correct that these are the brightest kids who take these classes. Maybe these kids aren't applying themselves as they should--it's supposed to be on par w/a college class IE--they must study and commit to the higher workload.
Here is the "problem"
"More students are enrolling in AP classes, but not enough are taking the related exams seriously, said Superintendent Milton Liverman."
Apart from any early college credit these kids get from taking the exam exposure to advanced content is going to be to their benefit. The real question is what is an acceptable pass rate and what is the best way to acheive it. Keep in mind we're talking about high school kids doing first year college level work.
Sometimes it not the teacher...
It is easy to blame teachers for students failures, I know, I have been teaching 10 years and have seen the all too familiar finger pointing at teaching staff when too often it is the students that are failing to perform.
In the article, it states that the majority of students pass the classroom exercises and tests, finishing with As and Bs; however, the larger portion of these same students are performing poorly on the AP tests.
In my experience it is often the case that students will focus their attention to passing the classroom exercises and test, and will generally do well because the instruction is still relatively fresh in their mind AND the studying-jam session the night before the tests ensure doing well.
Most students, after passing the classroom tests, generally disregard and even forget the materials as the class focus shifts to new learning. As each set of topics are introduced in the course of the makring period, sememster, and school year, the material once proven as mastered shifts to the realm of forgotten material.
Students are trained to pass the test but not retain the information for future application. Instead the older material has a tendency
Dead on!!
I wanted to add to the fact that gradebooks are online now. Principals have all the opportunity to look in on your grades, question what they are seeing, and 'correct' as they see fit. You get the question: "are you sure Student X really made an F...sure it wasn't a D?" I had a student be passed that missed more than the acceptable days by, oh, 100! But, he was ready to move on, and things were fixed to see that it happened for him.
Parents should always question their child, their child's teacher, and if those answers don't suffice, keep climbing until you find your answer.
What we're seeing is a lack of interest that SPS is taking advantage of.
Make the students pay?
The test is already paid for through taxes. With a failure rate like Suffolk's, the solution seems to be reassess how you prepare these kids for the AP test. Usually, the kids who are in AP are ones that are honor roll students anyway -- at least that is how it was when I was in high school. So blaming the children here doesn't seem proper.