<p>I think having such information would be a great planning tool for high schoolers and help bring the standards of the classes up. Kids could avoid the teachers with low pass rates; teachers with excellent pass rates would be sought after. </p>
<p>My district does not provide this information; does yours?</p>
<p>No, it does not. </p>
<p>One time I asked a math teacher what her Calc BC scores were, and I only got the "the fewer kids I teach, the higher the scores" answer.</p>
<p>Teachers seem to be prepped to tell parents at Open House what percentage of their AP students "passed" the AP exam, which is interpreted to mean got a score of 3 or better. That's really not helpful, though -- I would like to know how many got the 4s and 5s! </p>
<p>By now I realize that the teacher is only part of the equation -- my son took AP Government as a sophomore (special program). Most of the students taking it were seniors. There were only 3 scores of 5 on the AP exam in the entire school (my son's was one of them). And last school year his was one of only 3 scores of 5 on the APUSH exam.</p>
<p>Are you saying kids at your school can choose their teachers/schedules like in college?</p>
<p>In our sch. district, kids sign up for courses each spring and find out their schedule/teacher the week before school starts when they pick up their schedules at the high schools. In our mega urban/suburban district it would be impossible to allow students to choose their teachers/schedules. Scheduling is a nightmare as it is.</p>
<p>My daughter's school does, it's part of the school's profile. It shows for each year, by subject, how many kids are in each AP class, how many took AP examins and scores.</p>
<p>No, they cannot choose their teachers/schedules. If there is one AP teacher in the school and that teacher's pass rates are not very good, it's possible kids would decide not to sign up for that AP course; they may be better off taking another AP course with a teacher with better pass rates and self-studying for the AP exam for the poorly-taught course, rather than sitting through a bad class.</p>
<p>Oh, my daughter's school is small, so same teacher teaches same AP each year.</p>
<p>I'm an AP teacher. My school does not publish scores by class, as some of our AP classes are so small that the data would not be meaningful. More importantly, since some students do tend to talk about their scores, it would be pretty easy for anyone who wanted to to figure out who didn't do well.</p>
<p>The pass rate of my students is fairly constant, but the range of passing scores has varied a lot from year to year, which leads me to think that I'm a relatively small part of it.</p>
<p>While the schools and to some extent the teachers have access to that information, my local schools do not make this information public.</p>
<p>Both of my kids' schools pay to get the breakdown of scores on APs. What they release to the parents and students are the % of kids getting a 3, 4 or 5 (and they do break it down by score). At S1's school, the AP English teacher told the kids that while most kids in his clases got Bs in the course, 67% got 5s on the exam. I think he looked at individual data, because his info seemed very specific to the kids he taught. Most folks just gave tus the numbers by department.</p>
<p>The additional school report for the specialized program within S1's school broke down the scores based on that population of kids, so at some level, there must be the potential to analyze data at the student level.</p>
<p>At our school, the kids cannot choose their teachers; just the classes. I know the school gets the breakdown by class & by student; b/c the teachers mention it at Back To School Night.</p>
<p>Our school doesn't talk about it in general but the results are normally shared at Back to School night. Since there is only one AP teacher for each subject, it is not hard to figure out how each teacher is doing. </p>
<p>Our district requires every student enrolled in an AP class to take the AP exam. The district also is kind enough to pay for the tests - so $$ are no excuse. If you take the class and then don't take the test, your transcript is change and no longer says AP - xx but instead you are give credit for the lesser class - e.g. Regular xx. (and you lose the extra grade point in your weighted GPA)</p>
<p>To some extent it is not fair for have the same expectations of each teacher - AP US is open to all students to enroll - and as a result has a much number of students taking the class (probably 50% of each graduating class) - whereas something like AP Calc has so many prereqs that only perhaps 10% take the class.</p>
<p>At our HS, the students cannot chose the teachers. Also, if there are multiple classes for an AP course offering, they are taught by the same teacher. Typically, there are four classes of AP Euro History which was taught by the same teacher. Also typically, students have to hold their breath to see if enough have enrolled in AP Physics to make one class. AP Calculus AB and BC are taught by the same mathematics teacher. I think he's excellent but my S is good at math, so ...</p>
<p>FindAPlace, at my S's school, students also cannot choose their teachers.</p>
<p>If the one teacher who teaches AP course *Z<a href="whatever%20%5Bi%5DZ%5B/i%5D%20is">/i</a> has students none of whom score a 3 or better on the AP test, that is likely a class that my son wouldn't want to take. It may not be the teacher's fault that the scores are so low -- it may be that the students in the class don't have the skills necessary to succeed in the course. (In my school district, that is a perfectly plausible scenario.) Of course, it may be the teacher's fault, too. (In my school district, that is also a perfectly plausible scenario.)</p>
<p>Regardless of why AP scores are low, a student would have more and better information by which to decide which courses to take. Doesn't necessarily matter whether the kid can choose the teacher. </p>
<p>scualum, my district also pays for AP tests, whether a kid takes the course or not. (This surprised me; I was ready and willing to pay for my 9th-grader to take the AP Psych test, which he'd self-studied for, but I didn't need to -- the district picked up the tab.)</p>
<p>Our sch. district pays for AP exams also. Taking the exam is mandatory if you take the class. Lots of students here care far less about passing the exam than they do the extra 2 pts./per class the AP's bring to their gpa/class rank and how the AP's enhance the look of their transcripts..</p>
<p>At D's school, you can't choose your teacher, so if there's more than one AP teacher for a subject (few AP classes have more than one teacher), you have no way of knowing which one you'll get.</p>
<p>Students taking AP classes are required to take the exams, and we have to pay for them! Not really fair, if the teacher doesn't do a good job with the material. I've heard that's the case with AP Economics which D is planning to take next year. It would be so nice if the school picked up the tab, since taking the test is mandatory if you take the course.</p>
<p>Pass rates can, of course, be manipulated. At one school in our area only top-ranked students are allowed to take AP courses. At another, any student with an 85 average who expresses an interest in taking an AP course is allowed to. At another the cut-off is 90 in Honors courses only. At the school my wife teaches at teachers are given a lot of discretion as to which students are accepted for AP classes, which allows some to stack the deck: if only six super-brilliant kids are accepted into a class it is likely the pass rate will be very high. I do think, however, that if my daughter attended a high school with multiple AP classes taught in a given subject I'd be very interested in comparing teacher pass rates.</p>
<p>D's school was too small for that. You got who you got. Fortunately, for her they had good rates.</p>
<p>I'm sure our HS would give the exact figures if we asked. At parents night, most of the AP teachers mentioned that they had high pass rates--most of their students get 5 on the test. It is well known that the courses are difficult but the students come out extraordinarily well-prepared.</p>
<p>At my children's school, neither the teacher nor the classes can be selected. Every student takes the exact same course load, and any particular class is taught to all students taking it by the same teacher. (For example, all juniors take AP US History taught by Ms. X and AP English Composition taught by Ms. Y.) Students do not even choose what time of day they take a course, as that's largely a factor of what level of Spanish they're in. </p>
<p>All of our AP teachers have high pass rates; I think the pass rates are listed on the school website. Not all students choose to take the AP exams, of course, and it's not mandatory to do so.</p>
<p>At one school I know of (my cousin's kids') the students routinely get A's in their AP classes and 1s and 2s on the AP test. She was shocked when I told her that my daughter got a B in two of her AP classes and 5s on the tests. That school told the parents and the students that it is common to "fail" the AP test.</p>
<p>As far as picking and choosing AP instructors, my daughter's school was too small. If you took a subject AP, you got the teacher that was teaching it that year/semester.</p>
<p>I am so happy that high school is over. Not as happy about the tuition bills.</p>