AP Report to the Nation
But look at the demographics
Have you seen the College Board's 9th Annual AP Report to the Nation? The numbers are a bit white-washed and curated. However, one can gleen some interesting trends. For examaple, 29.2% of Maryland's high school graduates of 2012 scored a 3 or higher on an AP Exam while 8 States had 10% or less. The USA average was 19.5%. Although currently, the College Board is a not-for-profit corporation, its CEO earned over $1 million in 2009. It is my beleif that, ultimately, this report is about increasing or maintaining the College Board's intake of money. Still, given that the College Board's standardized exams do act as a gate for access to the best of USA society, being knowledgeable about the demographics of success on these exams is important. Here's the demographic that I recall the most (click to see a pop-up larger version):
Only 6 Black girls in the entire U.S. in 2008 got 5's on Physics C
A few years ago, I scolded an advisee of mine for pulling out of a leadership position (house president). Her reason was that she thought she had no chance of winning. Only one other person ran---and got the position by default. My advisee happened to be Black young woman. I told her that because of the history of our country and some facets of its current state, persons from certain demographic groups do not have the luxury to give up leadership positions. A few days ago, I saw a similar situation develop, but this time in an Honors Physics class. Upon researching some statistics, I found an article on "Who Gets 5's on AP Physics Exam" in the blog http://isteve.blogspot.com by Steve Sailer. (Disclaimer: I take no position on any view expressed by Sailer or his blog.)
- « Previous page
- 1
- 2
- Next page »