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Brian,

You are easily impressed and we really need to look at all of the numbers per school....

For example...right now we have 40+ kids in AP Statistics in one school....
80+ in AP English
80+ in AP US History
16+ in AP Biology and AP Physics
20+ in AP Psychology
30+ in AP Calculus

226 total taking AP courses in 1 school

Yet you are impressed that 482 passed an AP exam in the entire county....please!!
My student made a 4 on 1 exam and 1' s on the other two which was the norm for the school.

How many will pass the AP exam... how many will ever pass? How many has EVER passed?
We have AP classes that students have never passed the AP exam in ...

Out of all of the AP classes offerred .....
...how many students were in the class....
...how many passed the class
...how many made 1's on the AP exams
...how many made 2's
...how many made 3's
...how many made 4's
...how many made 5.s

I love the challenge of AP classes in our schools...our college bound students need them to be competitive...
even if they make a 1 on the exam...at least they are exposed to some form of higher learning
but I highly question the quality of teachers that we have teaching some of these classes and the quality of
our curriculums. I also highly question the preparation that some of our students have received prior to being
placed in these classes. There is too big a difference between the expectations in the classroom from
CP, Honors, to AP classes.....Our Honors classes need to become HONORS classes...these are the ones
that are truely watered down!!

EGParent,

I think you made my point for me. I was surprised that many students scored at that level, despite the fact that we have a ton of kids taking the classes because I've heard from many, many parents and several teachers the classes are watered down.

I assumed there would be lots of students who did not perform as well.

Plus, your numbers might represent another important point, total number of students taking the courses versus the total unique numbers. One student might take four of those classes, meaning you don't have 256 taking AP courses in one school but really a fraction of that.

You could be right about the 256, I don't know where you got your numbers or what school you're talking about.

Also, as an update, 4,906 students took AP exams last year. Of that 52 percent scored below a three.

Brian,
I would like to add that I give 110% credit for my student making a 4 on the AP exam to the
$500.00 tutor that I hired .... not the Guilford County School!!

We have all these students taking AP courses but the System as a whole has made negative progress. Teachers should help students have goals that require them to excell at the highest levels. As long as teachers and counselers tell kids that UNCG and A&T are as good as any other college, don't expect them to do more than is required to get into these colleges. Most of the teachers came from non-demanding schools and they have no concept of what it takes for a child to master the curriculum at a highly competitive school much less graduate school. Too many teachers want the children to be happy and to have a good social life. It is hard to go against the flow, but it would be easier if the supervisors would tell the children that school is work and it must take priority over most other things at this stage in their life.

re: "Watered down AP classes"

From: AP [mailto:apexams@ets.org]
Sent: None
To: jwg
Subject: AP

Thank you for contacting AP Services.

All schools wishing to label a course "AP" in the school year must complete
and return the subject-specific AP Course Audit form, along with the course
syllabus, for each teacher of that AP course. Within two months of
submitting AP Course Audit materials, schools will receive authorization for
qualifying courses to use the "AP" designation on student transcripts,
course catalogs, or other materials.

Once the course has been approved by AP Course Audit, you will be able to
list it as AP on the high school transcript. It will be up to the
individual college if the student will get any credit or placement for just
taking the course and not the exam.

--------------------------------------------------------
I assume that the AP Course Audit forms and replies are public record?

There can be a huge gap in the audit form and course syllbus which is sent into the AP board and what actually goes on in the class in each school...

I think the required AP course syllabus should be listed on each school website along with the actual
lesson plan summary for each class.

At the end of the grading period, a summary of the AP exam grades for each class should be made available.

Of course, now that the students are required to pay I doubt those that think they will make less that a three
will take it. I know we have no plans for taking any of the AP exams this year even though he is taking three
AP classes. Historically our students have not done well on the exams and I am not wasting my money or
his time.

if you look at the school detail several kids pass very well indeed. Maybe the kids that fail arent up to it or arent prepared to put in the amount of work necessary. My daughter was an AP scholar with distinction last year and she worked very, very hard.

I think some kids would do well reqardless of where they took the class..home, internet, in school.
I think some students are in AP classes and are not prepared to do this level work , because they
never learned how to study in prepartory classes.
I think some AP classes/teachers are doing exceptionally well in teaching and preparing students.
I think some AP classes/teachers are doing an exceptonally poor job teaching and preparing the students.

Would you not question which of these excuses to apply when the majority of students in the class school
are making 1's on the AP exam for a particuliar class...year after year after year?

Based on a sampling of the number of AP designated courses found at https://apcourseaudit.epiconline.org/ledger/, it seems that the number of AP courses offered in GCS is declining.