Usually a rise in the number of Advanced Placement test takers is accompanied by a seesaw-like drop in average scores.
But last year’s senior class in Montgomery County shattered previous records for both AP scores and participation, superintendent Jerry Weast announced Wednesday.
Analysis of 2006 AP test results showed that more than half of graduates took one or more AP exam and nearly that percentage —45 — earned a score of 3 or higher on at least one of their tests. Those numbers are up from 2005, the previous record-holding year.
Newly released data also indicate that 2006 saw the largest numbers of students scoring a 3, 4 and 5 in Montgomery County history, as nearly one in five graduates earned a perfect 5.
According to Schools Chief Information Officer Brian Edwards, these increases are all believed to be the results of concentrated efforts over the past seven years to promote AP involvement.
“Dr. Weast’s philosophy — and the philosophy he’s instilled in his staff — is that the more you open up challenging courses and get students to take these challenging courses, the better prepared they’ll be for college and life after college,” Edwards told The Examiner.
Stringent prerequisites used to make it difficult for high schoolers to gain acceptance into AP classes, but he said that Weast made it a priority to drop the requirements and, instead, allow anyone to try their hand at an AP class and subsequently take the exam for that class.
To that end, about 18,000 students were enrolled in AP courses in 2002. Now that total is up to 30,000, while the mean score for AP testtakers in the district has risen to 3.1.
Even with such success, though, Weast said Wednesday that challenges remain in addressing differences in participation and performance rates for minorities.
According to Edwards, 17 percent of black high schoolers in the county scored a 3 or better on their AP exams.
“The national average for all students is 14 percent,” he said. “So our African-American students are doing better than white students elsewhere and undoubtedly better than African-American students nationally. But there’s no question that white and Asian students here are outperforming them.”
Advanced courses
A sampling of the more than two dozen AP classes offered in Montgomery County:
» Japanese language and culture; economics (micro and macro); comparative government and politics; Latin, Vergil; human geography; music theory and composition; Spanish literature; psychology; studio art 3-D
