Good news: More students in Georgia taking AP classes and more doing well on the exams
The other day, David S. asked if there was ever good news about Georgia schools. There is good news and here’s some of it. We are doing better on AP tests, even while encouraging more students to take the rigorous courses and to sit for the AP exams, which are administered and graded by the College Board.
Here is the official release:
Gov. Sonny Perdue and State School Superintendent Brad Bryant today announced Georgia’s 2009-10 Advanced Placement (AP) results. Since the 2004-2005 school year, Georgia has seen a 97 percent increase in students scoring a 3, 4 or 5 on AP exams, compared to a 52 percent increase nationwide.
The six-year trend also shows Georgia has experienced a 106 percent increase in the number of AP public school test-takers, compared to a 56 percent increase nationwide.
“More and more Georgia students are meeting the challenge by taking and passing tough AP classes and exams,” Gov. Perdue said. “These tests often lead to earning college credits, which enable our students to enter college well prepared for advanced coursework.”
From 2009 to 2010, Georgia increased the percentage of AP public school test-takers by 13.4 percent compared to 9.5 percent nationwide, according to information recently released by the College Board. Georgia’s students also showed tremendous gains in the percentage of students scoring a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP exams (11.4 percent compared to 8.3 percent nationwide).
Colleges and universities may award college credit for AP exams completed with a score of three or higher.
“Georgia’s teachers and school leaders continue to step up and offer the rigorous curriculum that AP provides,” said Superintendent Bryant. “The increase in the number of students taking AP courses and scoring a 3, 4, or 5 demonstrates that more of our students are graduating from high school prepared for whatever they chose to do, whether that’s college or a career.”
Georgia’s minority students demonstrated significant participation and performance increase on AP exams in May 2010 compared to May 2009. Over the last year, African-American and Hispanic AP test-takers increased 19.2 percent and 29.3 percent, respectively, compared to the national increase of 13.9 percent for African-American test-takers and 15.3 percent for Hispanic test-takers. Georgia’s minority student AP performance also overshadowed the performance of their national counterparts, with a 15.2 percent increase in AP exam scores of 3 or higher for African-American Georgia test-takers, and a 33.3 percent increase for Hispanic Georgia test-takers, compared to 12.5 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively, for the nation.
This growth has been consistent. Since the 2004-2005 school year, African-American and Hispanic AP test-takers increased 147 percent and 273 percent, respectively, compared to the national increase of 113 percent for African-American test-takers and 90 percent for Hispanic test-takers.
Georgia’s minority student AP performance also saw remarkable gains. African-American test-takers saw a 153 percent increase in AP exam scores of 3 or higher (compared to 100 percent nationwide) and a 242 percent increase for Hispanic Georgia test-takers (compared to 76 percent nationwide.)
“As we continue to tackle the achievement gap, I am very encouraged by the increase in minority students taking AP courses and excelling,” said Superintendent Bryant. “Results have shown time and again that students who are exposed to more rigorous coursework are better prepared for college and the workforce.”
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56 comments Add your comment
Attentive Parent
October 1st, 2010
6:09 pm
The “you’ in the 2nd paragraph is not personal and should read the US or we.
The Carnegie Commission report is especially fun as it describes the responsibilities of the different levels of govt, the private sector, unions, and philanthropic organizations. All the things each group is to do to have the feds control K-12 education without running afoul of that pesky 10th Amendment.
Hummon
October 2nd, 2010
1:45 pm
Page 114 of the STEM report speaks of targeting students whose PSAT scores suggest the potential for success in AP, not students of all academic levels. And it promotes inquiry-based learning as a good thing for the AP curriculum as a whole, not as some sop to be thrown to unqualified minority students.
I see how this works. Even though you’ve distorted the contents of that page, suppose I concede that the Carnegie report really does explicitly advocate college for students of all academic levels. Fine. Even if that’s what it says, you turned one group’s advocacy for universal college access into advocacy for universal AP access.
Straw man. Neal Boortz couldn’t have done it any better.
Hummon
October 2nd, 2010
1:58 pm
P.S. to Attentive Parent,
Though I don’t care for how you’re deploying evidence, I’m impressed that you’re the sort of person who reads reports of that kind. More power to you! Also, if you reply to my retort above, rest assured that you are going to get the last word. I can’t devote another minute to this. Too many papers to grade. Happy trails!
Attentive Parent
October 2nd, 2010
9:48 pm
Hummon-
I’m not trying to catch you out and you may not read this. I was talking about 2 different points both of which are alarming.
I am so concerned about where we are headed at the federal level and the implications for our country’s futures that I read these reports. Having read many, I pick up the incremental details and common language. I also have read both reports and many others I cite all the way through.
I’m not playing gotcha although I can. I’m not even doing this for my own kids. I can have a nerdy conversation with substance and humor while carpooling.
I am legitimately worried about where we are headed and all these reports and studies reenforce the idea that we are spending great sums of money, frequently with good intentions, for policies and methods that are designed to take us backwards.
Good luck to you and your students. I’m not looking for the last word and I always wish anyone trying to do right by students well.
Good news: More students in Georgia taking AP classes and more … | Georgia
October 3rd, 2010
2:48 am
[...] Good news: More students in Georgia taking AP classes and more … [...]
Ole Guy
October 3rd, 2010
2:20 pm
Hummon, thanks for that clarification. I realize that the teachers’ result cannot be enumerated in concise fashion. My comment on “where’s the beef?” reflect upon social indicators outside the immediate realm of k-12 public education. When we see fewer college kids requiring remedials…when we see recent grads, both from high school and from colleges and universities, making inroads/progress in areas of advanced academe as well as the trades, small businesses, etc. Inasmuch as we are in the throes of a tough economy, and a tougher job market, THERE ARE JOBS OUT THERE. The problem is these are not semi-skilled/unskilled jobs…these are jobs which require specific training and education. Granted the government-touted economic recovery appears to be largely devoid of jobs and employment opportunities, THERE ARE, nonetheless, opportunities.
On the more grim side of the picture are the statistics in crime/anti-social behavior, and the attendant social costs in terms of incarceration, etc.
It is wonderful that SAT scores are up; that AP is booming, etc. However, all these good things appear to be somewhat uncoordinated in terms of long range plans…just exactly what do we intend to do in “harvesting” the product of a generation which has achieved high SATs, and has taken advantage of AP courses at the high school level?
Following the Soviet Union’s inroad into the space race, by way of Sputnick, National luminaries, Admiral Rickover, father of the nuclear Navy among them, were instrumental in fostering a National educational system which would educate generations in the mathematics, science, and foreign language disciplines for the sole purpose of both meeting the Soviet threat and, ultimately, gaining global eminence in areas of technological advancement.
As an educational product of the 60s, I do not recall “shooting cannons and blaring bugles of triumph” in making good grades on SATs/ACTs. It was simply something you did (not that I was all that smart…in fact, I had trouble finding my locker and remembering the combination). Making acceptable-to-good grades simply meant 1) not looking like a dumb ass goat by your peers, and 2) staying in good graces with the parents who were prone to make life “unfun”, ie restriction, no car (which meant no booze and no ladies on the weekends), and, of course, the ever-present “intervention” of Dad and his Marine Corps-style of discipline. To be perfectly honest (and not to poopoo on “achievements”), blowing horns of triumphant adulation over good SATs would probably have been tantamount to celebratory cheering over the successful completion of the bodily elimination process while managing not to fall into the “river”.
Repeating” THE WORLD WAITS FOR NO ONE! If we are to do the “hip hip horrays” over long overdue achievements, let’s push the envelop of achievements until we find/refind the BEEF.