@CaucAsianDad at our school, in some classes, if you get a certain AP score it can improve your class grade but will not bring it down. I do not believe any of the practice tests are counted for class grades but could be wrong in that, I’d have to look.
@dfbdfb USNWR includes AP attempts and pass rates as part of their HS rankings among other things. They just came out/updated for 2015 HS’s so yes, it is definitely counted. Our HS actually went up in the ranking this year and their attempt and pass rate was part of the increase. The attempt rate is used as an indicator as to how much of the school take AP, and thus is a rigor indicator. One would assume colleges may use this data as rigor indicators but who really knows.
The overall AP metrics for USNWR are:
Advanced Placement® (AP®) Student Performance
Many U.S. higher educational institutions grant credits or advanced placement based on student performance on AP® exams. This shows this school’s student participation and performance on these exams if data were available.
Participation Rate
Participant Passing Rate
Exams Per Test Taker
Exam Pass Rate
Quality-Adjusted Participation Rate
Quality-Adjusted Exams Per Test Passer
I have no clue what those last 2 line items are.
Hence the pressure to make the kids take the test (and why I thought it was required, but it isn’t).
S said that one of the AP practice tests he has been taking at school (can’t remember if it is one of the Physic C tests or Calc BC) a passing grade that gets a 5 on the AP test is actually a 58% or something along those lines. I can’t imagine the teacher not realigning that score! 58% in the grade book wold tank his grade!!
@dfbdfb What’s with the TL;DR? Then don’t read and don’t reply.
UNWR rankings include AP pass rate
One criteria the state uses to rank schools - and subsequently funds it - is College Acceleration ( however they also rank schools on grades received by students):
Denominator – Students from the graduation rate numerator.
Numerator – Graduates who, during the four years of the cohort, earned at least
a score of 3, 4, or 5 on a College Board Advanced Placement (AP) examination, a score of 4, 5, 6, or 7 on an International Baccalaureate (IB) examination, a score of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 on an Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) examination, a C ‐ or better in an approved dual enrollment course,
OR
a CAPE industry certification or a CAPE acceleration industry certification identified in the Industry Certification Funding List
-Teachers can receive bonuses for attaining high enough AP pass rates (3 or above).
D took IB Physics this year instead of AP (and is now deeply regretting that choice as she has a 78 average right now), and they are prepping for the IB test next week by taking old IB tests and correcting them in class. One question was so difficult the teacher didn’t know how to explain the answer, and her senior friend in the same class who is going to MIT could not do it either. I’m like, sheesh. Hopefully this weekend her tutor can show her how to do it. If he can’t (he’s got a PhD in Physics), then I’m going to be super bummed for her if it shows up on the test.
Her peers in AP Physics do not get class credit for the actual AP test, but both kids are taking other AP class test prep tests now and those do count. The teachers are having those tests replace lowest grades in the semester, so that’s good, but her AP Physics friends are reporting that the prep tests are insanely hard and not helping their averages at all.
Speaking of animals, there’s a sparrow’s nest with five speckled pale blue eggs in it in the bush by our front door-I just noticed it a minute ago. I went to brush off the pine straw that had mysteriously appeared on the top of the bush (about waist high) and a bird flew out-I was like whoa! Hopefully I didn’t scare her away permanently.
The one teacher that converts the 5 to an A also uses the adjusted 85% -100% grading scale. That class is Human Geo and that class really is an easy A. The teacher for that class says it is extremely difficult to use a grading scale other the standard 10 point scale in the schools system, so she is the only one using it currently.
During spring parent teacher conference, the physics teacher who will be teaching AP Physics C next year gave us a heads up that the scores will be shocking (70s) but he will use different curve to give grades, A.
So, yes, I’ll check with the teacher and ask if he/she uses different curve.
The teacher was like you’ve never got anything like 70 or 65 so don’t be surprisded… (at that point, DS did have such score in history… so DS said yeah, I’ve got those…)
He said well, you’ve never seen Fs or Cs… (DS said, yeah, I have those in my intermin report.)
There are several mock AP exams this week, but I don’t think they are going to put them in the grades using the raw score. I might be wrong, but his AP teachers seem reasonable. Curves and extra credit don’t happen very often at his school, at least in the advanced classes. There was a tiny curve last year in AP Calc BC, but only for the final.
He feels pretty good about AP Eng Lang (no real way to study for that anyway), APUSH, and AP Biology. AP Spanish he’s prepping for and watching YouTube videos in Spanish. He probably has to take the IB Spanish SL tests also that week, but he doesn’t know when because “IB is a mystery,” since that’s his only IB class.
He also will have a multivariable final for his online class, and that will be his hardest test and take the most time to study for. There are no lectures or discussion group (just read the book), no curve, no partial credit (everything graded by computer), so he’s really worked for his 90%. (There are some homework problems that let you try again if it is marked wrong the 1st time.) It seems like some students have the homework answers, because they post grades by ID# and some students have 100% on all of the 30+ homeworks but not on the tests, which are proctored. I suppose they could also try to memorize exam answers, too.
There are a bunch of extra things he wants to do, but we keep saying “after the AP tests.” School goes until June 8. I think most classes will have some sort of large project after AP tests, but he will have lots of time once the multivariable class is done.
@CaucAsianDad The way I see tl;dr used a lot now is that someone realizes that what they have written is too long, so they provide a short summary of their own message after “tl;dr” at the end. I don’t believe it was saying that what you wrote was too long.
Fascinating—especially since Jay Mathews’s defense of his (horrible, horrible) Challenge Index is that schools don’t release their AP pass rates, so they can’t be used (leading him to use simple participation rates). I wonder how USNWR gets them, then?
And @CaucAsianDad, @Ynotgo got it absolutely correct—TL;DR+summary isn’t a commentary on someone else’s post, it’s a commentary on one’s own. (TL;DR by itself, on the other hand? Yeah, that’s pretty aggressive.)
@CaucAsianDad I agree with @Ynotgo ; I will do a TL;DR on myself, but not others. From that reading it looked like @dfbdfb was summarizing a lot of his own data.
I have the hardest time with the username dfbdfb, btw-my brain wants to make them all “d’s”.
S’s calc teacher will give a student who doesn’t have an A in his class an A if the student scores a 5 on the Calc B/C AP test. So far he has only had to do that for one student.
@Ynotgo – wow that’s a lot!! 3 APs here. Took AP CS online last year & took the exam. Multivariable calc as a junior - impressive!! Wonder what he’ll take as a senior for science and math etc. (Think my DS will take AP Chem & AP Physics C) Not possible in our district to take that level of math though - would have to take college courses separately - he will only graduate with AP BC Calc - hope that’s good enough for college apps for some good schools. Students are taking some AP Finals this week that count as 30% of 4th qtr grades - but I think the grades will be curved so thankfully taking APs does not destroy GPAs necessarily.
Yeah - after APs - DS preps for FBLA nationals, NYSSMA majors (music) and he wants to get his CCNA and some other IT and security related certifications - just because. But school goes through 3rd week of June here so aways to go!!
Our school profile doesn’t include the pass rate or anything about GPA distribution. I think it’s not a very effective profile. I’d like to make suggestions, but I think I’d be stepping on toes. It says:
Notice that they don’t even say which Physics, Calculus, English, … are offered. I think they should make it clear that Physics C has never been offered.
I’ve gotten % of 4s and 5s from the administration via email for some AP classes that DS was considering. But, they took awhile to gather the data.
In Florida, it’s $50 per passed exam, with a $2,000 per year maximum. Teachers in D or F rated schools receive an additional $500 bonus if at least one of their students passes an AP exam.
The schools also receive additional funding, based on every student in an AP class who scores a 3 or better. In this case, an additional 0.16 “FTE” is added to the schools FTE membership for next year, which would lead to an increase allocation of funds for that year.
The Florida Virtual School, the state’s Internet-based public high school, offers AP courses at no cost to Florida residents (but non-public school/home school students must pay the AP exam fee).
@CaucAsianDad I hadn’t noticed any changes to the grading scale for my son’s AP classes or anything “test prep” related that’s creating a GPA hit. However, it’s the AICE classes that seem more rigorous (he’ll not take Calc BC till his senior year), and they don’t really pay much attention to the AP test in those classes (though they will sometimes take the AP test, along with the AICE test). Teachers get the same $50 bonus for AICE and IB passes test (4 or higher for IB, E or higher for AICE), and the school gets the same 0.16 FTE bonus for each student passing the IB/AICE exam.
In general, the final 9 week period seems to be graded a bit easier and be a bit less stressful (even with all of the test being taken).
@mtrosemom I don’t think our HS ever changes grades after they go out. (Though I might be uninformed about special cases.) They certainly wouldn’t change a grade after AP scores come out in July.
@CA1543 3rd week of June seems really late. You must start after Labor Day?
We are still trying to figure out what he will take next year. He’s run out of math, science, and CS at the HS unless he wanted to take Statistics or Environmental Science, which he doesn’t. Everything in math after Calc BC is also a college class here.
We are waiting for the local UC’s fall class schedule to come out, and the community college is also possible. He plans to take AP Lit and AP Econ/Gov at the high school. He also plans to take 2 periods of the capstone class through the HS engineering program, which is somewhat flexible with scheduling (including evenings), and I hope “somewhat” means “a lot,” because it’s difficult to fit MWF or TuTh college classes with a lecture and a lab/discussion in with the HS schedule. And, he really wants to be at the HS for lunch because of his clubs.
Anyone know of a good college scheduling app to do “what ifs” with various schedules?
Yep, grade changes will not work for seniors! S’s school does not offer designated Advanced Placement (AP) courses. However, qualified students may take AP exams. Some of the kids take many AP tests. S will probably take a total of 3, maybe 4. He is not into self study and only a couple of teachers choose to work the AP curriculum into their classes (math and physics mainly).
Fun stuff:
DS convinced DH to bring liquid nitrogen from work to the Science Club today at lunch. DS made ice cream mix last night and DH will bring that along with our mixer to make LN2 ice cream. Practical mom remembered to send spoons and cups this morning.
In Debate Club, DS has been trading off with a girl making cookies/brownies each week. DS had been making chocolate chip cookies every week for over a year. I guess the girl thought some variety was needed. There is amused speculation that she wants to be club president next year. Though, I think flirting is a possibility. Everyone else is happy to have homemade desserts.
My older kids attended two different high schools (current one is homeschooled) and took a variety of AP classes. For AP practice tests that also counted as grades (midterms, ones during the month prior to APs), the teachers curved according to the published AP curves. They did not use raw percentages. Both were private schools, so maybe if they had been at public schools the teachers would have been forced for district/state guidelines to use the raw scores. Who knows?
I remember the look of relief on oldest’s face when he learned about AP curves :))
