AP Tests Are Coming Up

Next week begins the next round of Advanced Placement (AP) tests. They are designed to measure the achievement of high school students in a college-level course. We are fortunate at South in that the majority of our students enroll in at least one AP class by the time they graduate, with most of those taking somewhere between 3-5 classes during their high school career.

One of our building goals for the 2008-09 school year was to increase participation in the Advanced Placement program. Rationale for the goal is that there is a strong correlation between students that take an AP class with later succcess in college.

There is strong evidence that students who enroll in an AP class do better in college than those that never attempt an AP curriculum. Those that subsequently sign up for, and take the test, do even better. And the most reliable predictor of college success are those students who earn a passing grade on an AP test.

During the 2007-08 school year, our students attempted 962 tests. Of those, 826 earned a passing score of 3-4-5. The pass rate at South was an astounding 85.9%, even though the national average is closer to 50%. In my opinion, although our pass rate is the envy of nearly every other institution nationwide, it could be considered too high because it may mean we're not reaching deep enough into our talent pool.

In response, we established a goal to increase by 5% the number of tests attempted and passed. If we can stay close to the previous pass rate, that's a plus, but we believe it is more critical to attempt the test rather than focus only on passing the test and we have the data to prove it.

Next Monday begins two weeks of testing where nearly 1,000 tests will be administered. While we wish our students well, the data tells us they will already have a leg up on their competition before they enter college next fall. We wish them luck all the same.