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These programs are important tools for closing Washington- Wilkes' achievement gap. Recently Washington-Wilkes High School was named a Georgia Advanced Placement Access and Support School by Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools. This designation is given to Georgia public schools where at least 30 percent of the AP test takers are African-American or Hispanic and at least 30 percent of all AP exams received a score of 3 or higher.
<p>This is an interesting subject to talk about. At my school the majority of students who do take AP classes are white, which in turn creates a kind of closed environment where people can't talk to a wide variety of people...</p>
<p>I like the score component as part of the award. The annual Newsweek (I think???) awards for top high schools frustrates me because it only looks at number of AP tests as a percentage to the senior class # of students. The schools in my area that it recognizes are ones that encourage all students to take the exams, but is also one of the ones that has the lowest "passing" rates on those exams. </p>
<p>I'm sure there are flaws in this Georgia plan, but it seems like a step in the right direction, at least. This is an issue that is huge in our NC school district....not only for AP tests, but for the state competency exams as well.</p>
<p>my school is a prime example of what GA is trying to improve with this; the majority (read: 90% of students at my school) are underachieving minorities. unfortunately, most students that take APs just take them to have APs on their transcript (ie, they dont really put forth the effort that is required for APs). thats not to say that all students who take APs dont care, its just that most dont. </p>
<p>with most of the socioeconomic issues with minorities beginning at education (they usually cant go to good schools without living in a good area, they cant live in a good area without a good job, and most good jobs can only be acquired through education), i dont know what else a school system could do to fix the situation if their solutions only work for a small amount of students.</p>
<p>You live in NC too, astrophysicsmom? My school is about 50% black, 30% Hispanic, and 20% white, but we are doing pretty well with the standardized testing that NC administers. 73% of my schools gets free lunch as well. Our AP scores are pretty pitiful though. All of the teachers are looking at me and my best friend for good scores this year. I feel a lot of pressure to do well on my AP tests (English Language, US History, and Human Geography [self-study]).</p>
<p>Overall, our AP classes are just filled with the "traditional" AIG kids who have been sheltered together since elementary school (I am not apart of that group; I came to my current school system in middle school from the Triad area). Our AP classes have sprinklings of minorities, but most of the minorities drop the AP classes. It's a shame, too. Some of them are pretty smart.</p>
<p>I like this, actually. I saw a documentary on Central High School (yeah, think Little Rock Nine) and surprisingly there's a lot of self-segregation. One of the ways this was shown was through differences in students registering for AP classes</p>
<p>My school is mostly white (as in >93%), but tons of Asians also take AP classes. But then again, that's kind of expected. Bleh.</p>
<p>they need this kind of initiative at my school. My school is like 22% black and I was always the only black male in all of my AP's. There were black girls here and there but it was rare. And I have never seen a hispanic so yeah, things need to change.</p>
<p>My school has like 15% Asians (of which I'm one) and 5% blacks. The rest are Caucasian. </p>
<p>But the AP classes are like 30-60% Asian, depending on the subject... and I've only had an African-American in <em>one</em> of my classes (besides Gym) in my four years of high school >.></p>
<p>Well, it's not exactly forced diversification on par with some sort of affirmative action. The award is for those schools that have diversification as a factor (whether it be forced or not is irrelevant to the award the state of Georgia gives). I agree, though. Diversification is not good when it deprives others. </p>
<p>On the other hand, in my college search, I am looking for schools that have a good bit of diversification. I dread the idea of having 80%+ white student body. This is coming from a white guy too. With such high populations of whites, you tend to get the majority of them to be of the WASP-type. That annoys me to no end!</p>
<p>I also like the "30%+ passing grade" stipulation. So many "white?" schools cram their AP classes with kids who take it solely for the label without expending the effort, diluting them for kids who enjoy intensity, but the problem is more dire if AP exam scores matter--i.e. the semester saved in college may affect whether or not the URM goes.</p>
<p>My school is 90% white, 8% asian, and 2% bused in from nearby urban area. A graph of number of asians vs. level of course (AP/Honors being highest) is heavily skewed left. 37.5% of my Virgil class is Asian; as is 25% of my AP Bio class. AP Chem, this year, seems to be ~50% Asian. :-D</p>
<p>There was an interesting article in the Chicago paper about this very subject. At d's school the majority of AP students were white although the student population is diverse. The article in the paper highlighted schools that enrolled a large number of URM's, sadly the results were not as expected. Many struggled witht the material, got poor grades and, ultimately, paid money for AP tests which the bombed. The article also addressed some areas where URM students received A's in the AP course and then the majority failed the AP test. This brought about the issue of forcing teachers to teach AP when they, as teachers, were not prepared.</p>
<p>That's a large problem in many schools with the AP program. The students in the classes will get A's, yet fail the exam. Last semester, in my AP US History class, a good majority of the class failed the first exam. These "honors/AP" kids complained to mommy and eventually it got back to the teacher. A's and B's for everyone! We will see how they do on the AP exam. I mean, if you refuse to read the textbook or at least AMSCO, then you deserve to fail. It's very sad. My AP US History teacher said she expects everyone except me and my best friend to fail the exam. I swear, if I taught high school, things would be a lot different.</p>
<p>most of my teachers are like that, sligh_anarchist, people get tons of As yet fail the AP test. the teachers are fantastic and really intelligent, yet they get stuck with kids that dont give a crap about work. the teachers end up failing them, and because most of the kids happen to be black, all i hear in the halls is "my ap [insert AP subject] is such a racist".</p>