Schools

Rockville High Lags Behind County on AP Exams

School faces choice of high participation vs. high scores, principal says.

For Rockville High School principal Debra Munk, the approach to Advanced Placement comes with a choice: Open AP classes to only the best and the brightest students and passage rates on AP exams are most likely to be high. But encourage more students to take AP classes and the school’s scores are at risk.

“We have opted to give more kids the experience [of AP],” Munk said Tuesday.

Munk said she is “distressed” by Rockville High’s scores.

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“However, we have put a great deal of effort in getting our kids exposed to AP,” she said.

Of the 283 members of the school’s Class of 2011, 111 (39.2 percent) earned a score of 3 or higher, according to scores released Wednesday by Montgomery County Public Schools. That lags behind the county (49.6 percent), but ranks ahead of the state (27.9 percent) and the nation (18.1 percent).

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Of the county school system’s “7 Keys to College Readiness,” Key 6 is a score of 3 on an AP exam or a 4 on an International Baccalaureate exam.

Even if they don’t earn a 4 or 5—which could earn them college credit—students taking AP exams gain valuable exposure to exam-driven college-level coursework, Munk said.

Students are told to take the course now, while it’s free, so that if they have to pay for it in college they’ll likely do better and not waste their tuition, she said.

The effort to push more students into AP—whether they are ready or not—is a strategic decision rooted in studies by the College Board—which administers the exams, and by MCPS. Those studies found that students who take an AP exam—even if they score 3 or lower—go on to graduate college at a higher rate than those who do not take an AP exam.

(Some to graduate regardless of their AP performance.)

Rockville High teachers actively recruit black and Hispanic students for AP classes, Munk said. Many of those students are the first members of their families to go on to college.

Despite the efforts, Rockville's AP participation rate fell between 2010, when 74.2 percent of graduates (198 of 267) took at least one AP exam, and 2011, when 67.1 percent of graduates (190 of 283) took at least one exam.

Countywide, 66.1 percent of the Class of 2011 took at least one AP exam.

Among Rockville’s Class of 2011, 45.5 percent of black or African-American graduates (20 of 44) and 59.3 percent of Hispanic or Latino students (48 of 81) took one or more AP exams. That compares to 44.5 percent of black or African-American and 53 percent of Hispanic or Latino graduates countywide.

Nationally, 18.5 percent of black or African-American graduates and 29.1 percent of Hispanic or Latino graduates took one or more AP exams.

Teachers and administrators are working to change a culture that said some students are not cut out for AP, Munk said.

“But to do that I’ve had to swallow lower test scores,” she said, adding repeatedly throughout the interview that the factors leading to lower scores are “not an excuse.”

Five of Rockville’s 44 black or African-American graduates (11.4 percent) and 28 of 81 Hispanic or Latino graduates (34.6 percent) scored 3 or higher on at least one AP exam.

That compares to 50.2 percent of black or African-American graduates and 70.1 percent of Hispanic or Latino graduates countywide. Nationally, 27.3 percent of black or African-American graduates and 53.6 percent of Hispanic or Latino graduates scored 3 or higher on at least one exam.

Rockville High is working “vigilantly” to raise scores, Munk said.

To that end, students in 9th through 12th grade are enrolled in the Advancement Via Individual Determination—or AVID—program, which teaches study skills and focuses on increasing reading ability.

“We’re starting earlier, beefing up 9th and 10th grade honors [classes] and telling kids they’re pre-AP classes,” Munk said.

Teachers are trained with the understanding that their students will eventually take AP exams.

It’s an approach that’s been used in the past with IB, but not always with AP, Munk said.

comprises about 100 students in 11th and 12th grade. Munk estimates that the top 15 percent of the senior class is enrolled in IB and not AP. The result is a decrease in the pool of candidates to raise the school’s AP scores.

Nearly 28 percent of the Class of 2011 in Maryland scored a 3 or higher on at least one AP exam—the highest of any state, according to the College Board's "AP Report to the Nation."

But, some schools are "putting the cart before the horse and rushing kids into AP," Trevor Packer, vice president of Advanced Placement for the College Board, told The Baltimore Sun.

Participation is important, but preparation is key, county schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr said in a news release.

“While we should celebrate the progress we are making, we must also pay close attention to performance variability among our students,” Starr said. “We must make sure our students not only have access to AP but have the skills and knowledge they need to be successful.”


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