In light of their fail rate, I'm curious as to the sense of having schools like City College, Patterson, etc. continue to offer AP courses and exams. Yes, AP courses can give you a jumpstart in college, but what's the point if the majority of students flunk the test?

City College offers much more IB exams than AP exams. For the most part, the top students in the school take the IB courses, not the AP tests. The pass rate on the IB assessments (which are much more effective assessments of student learning than AP, in my opinion) are much higher (including, but not limited to, several years in a row of a 95-100% pass rate on the IB English exams).

That being said, yes, the AP exam scores are very low for the school system, as well as City College (though certainly higher than 3%). But offering the students a chance to take a rigorous class still offers a high-quality educational opportunity for students. Even if students are not all the way up to a passing score of a 4, then might improve from a 1 to a 3 iover a course, and this benefits them and their college preparation.

While I certainly agree that taking rigorous courses helps prepare students for college, the College Board's assertion that students who take AP courses are more likely to graduate from college is misleading. OF COURSE students who take AP courses are more likely to graduate. The types of kids who take AP classes are often the types of kids who are more motivated, have a strong support system at home, and who go to "better" schools - the types of schools that offer AP. The act of sitting in an AP course doesn't CAUSE students to graduate from classes. There is a correlation between those two things, but not causation.

@LauravilleMom - The point, if you believe the studies, is that regardless of how many pass the AP test, the kids that take AP courses and go on to college are less likely to drop out of college. IMHO it's desirable for every high school to have the kids that say they are going on to college take an AP (or IB) course. That will give them an idea of the amount of rigor that they will be seeing in college and if they're not up for it, maybe college isn't the right choice for them. The hard thing for the AP teachers is that if the kids haven't had an education leading them up to the point of being ready for an AP class there'll be a bunch of smart and previously successful kids that will not do well (much to their and their parents shock I'm guessing). Still, it's not fair to say that if the kids in a high school do poorly on the AP exam we should take the opportunity for the exam away from them.

Having been on both sides of the equation--teaching AP and having children who took AP--I am always conflicted by the city schools offering AP courses to students who are not really prepared to take them. Good grades in previous years alone does not qualify a student to take an AP class. AP students also need to be self-starters, strong readers and writers and be willing to do work on a regular, rigorous basis. BCPSS compounds the problem of AP courses by mandating that all students enrolled in the courses take the test because the system pays for them to take the test. That puts an unfair burden on the students who took the class only because they were pressured into it by a counselor or other adult. It is also the reason that the pass rate for BCPSS is low. When the majority of the students are not going to pass, why make them take the test? It certainly doesn't reflect well on anyone involved.

I agree that many city students have been ill prepared for AP classes. However, they should at least have the option to take them. My school, like many others, doesn't offer a single AP course, and in fact doesn't offer any honors courses either. I am all for heterogeneous grouping in the younger grades, but students who want to work hard in high school deserve to be with peers who will push them.

It's sinful that probably about half of the schools in Baltimore City weren't even on the article's lists- they don't have pass rates because they don't have AP classes.

So, in the counties only the kids who think they are going to pass take the tests, but in the city everyone in the class takes the test? If that's the case these statistics are totally bogus. Somehow I had assumed that every kid in an AP class would take an AP test. Given the non-uniform testing approach, it would be better to say what percentage of kids in each of these schools take AP classes and in those classes what percentage of kids pass the AP test. That would keep the numbers from rewarding schools that have low percentages take the test. I hate bogus statistics!

Students in Baltimore City are not required to take the AP exam even if they are enrolled in an AP class. They are certainly encouraged to take the test, and the tests are paid for by the system, but they are not made to take them. What possible penality would a graduating senior face if he/she did not want to take the test? Additionally, the statistics used in the article concern the % of graduating seniors who have taken and passed at least one AP exam while in high school. It does not reflect the passing % for all of the AP test takers in a given school for a given year...case in point, the passing rate of all AP test takers at Poly last year (Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors) was around 50% as compared to the 21% of graduating seniors - as reported in the article.

In the Trenches--While the students are not required to take the test, they have to pay the fee if they don't. I think that qualifies as a type of "requirement." The bottom line is that the stats for BCPSS on the pass rate on the AP are skewed one way or another. But, but course, stats can always be manipulated, can't they?

You mention in your article that it took a while to get schools to "cough up" the AP data. I am an English teacher in Harford County, and I have no idea how our county compares to the national average on AP exams. Could you give me an idea where I might find school averages for particular exams as well as national averages?

The reports of AP scores are ALWAYS misleading because not al schools use the same set of statistics. Every school should report the percentage of students who passed the AP exam compared to the percent of all course takers in that subject. This information should be available to all educators so that maybe other AP teachers could learn some best practices from those teachers who are showing the greatest degree of success. I have been an educator in Harford County for ten years, and I have yet to see this sort of data made public. It would also be nice to know what the state averages and national averages are for the above-stated criteria.