Montgomery County’s Hispanic students are enrolling in more Advanced Placement classes and doing better on the AP exams required for university credit, but are still struggling to keep pace with other students in the county and Hispanics across the nation.
Nationwide, Hispanics made up 15 percent of the class of 2007, according to data compiled by New York City-based College Board. Hispanic students graduating last year accounted for 14 percent nationally of those taking an AP exam in the same year.
Montgomery County’s 1,577 Hispanic graduating seniors made up 16 percent of the class of 2007, but only 10 percent of the 12,491 students who took an AP test in the county last year.Montgomery school officials are quick to point out that their numbers include underclassmen in their tally of test takers. And their total population includes late-graduating students, not included in the College Board figures, who are less likely to take the AP courses.
“We’re the first group to admit we haven’t solved the achievement gap,” said Stephen Bedford, the schools’ chief performance officer. “But we’re trying our damndest to dothis; we’re trying to right a wrong that’s been generations in the making.”
The AP exam passing rates for Hispanic students in Montgomery County are worse.
Nationally, 14 percent of those seniors who passed an AP exam during high school were Hispanic. But in Montgomery County, Hispanics represented 9 percent of the students, from all grades, who passed an exam in 2007.
District officials, frustrated with outsiders’ laser focus on Montgomery County’s numbers, point to clear successes.
Nearly half of Hispanic students who graduated in June 2007 took an AP exam at some point in their high school career, compared with about a quarter of Hispanic graduates nationwide, said Brian Edwards, spokesman for Superintendent Jerry Weast.
“It’s interesting that even though people acknowledge that we’re making progress, they come back and say, ‘But you haven’t done that. How come?’ ” Bedford said. “It’s a funny question. I don’t know if other districts are getting that question.”
Not bridging the gap
The breakdown on Montgomery County’s Advanced Placement program:
» White students, who made up 47 percent of Montgomery graduates, accounted for 57 percent of exam takers.
» Asian students were 15 percent of graduates but 23 percent of those taking AP tests.
» Hispanic students accounted for 16 percent of the class of 2007 but only 10 percent of AP test takers.
