Hispanic students show gains in AP tests

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

The percentage of Nevada students who did well enough on the Advanced Placement exam to earn college credit nearly doubled from 2000 to 2004, with Hispanic students showing the strongest gains both in participation and test scores.

A new report released Tuesday by the College Entrance Exam Board, which administers the AP exam, showed Nevada had a 28.7 percent increase in the number of students who took the exam in 2004 compared with the prior year. That's compared to an 8.4 percent increase nationwide in the same period.

The AP exams, given in a variety of subjects, have a top score of 5. A minimum score of 3 is typically required for a student to apply for college credit in the subject area.

Nevada's black students, particularly those in Clark County, lagged behind their peers in other states when it came to performance on the AP test. In 2004, Clark County had 119 black students take one or more AP exams, with 70 students scoring at least a 3, a pass rate of 34 percent. That was a drop of 6.7 percent in the pass rate over the 2003 results. Black students statewide fared better with 50.7 scoring at least a 3, improving the pass rate by 2.5 percent.

While the percentage of black students passing the exam fell in Clark County last year, the overall pass rate was still better than the national average for the ethnic group. Nationally black students showed a 10.5 percent improvement in their pass rate in 2004 to 29.3 percent.

E. Louis Overstreet, executive director of the Urban Chamber of Commerce, said he hoped the College Board would provide even more specific information about student performance in its next annual report.

"We need to see the socio-economic backgrounds of the students and we need to know how many of these kids are taking the AP class before they sit for the exam," Overstreet said. "I also hope school counselors are informing students that one test isn't the single predictor of future success in life."

Karlene McCormick-Lee, associate superintendent of research and accountability for the Clark County School District, said she has asked College Board officials to provide more specific information about students who take the AP exam. McCormick-Lee said she is particularly interested in finding out how many students who take the exam were formerly identified as having limited proficiency in English.

As for the district's black students, McCormick-Lee noted that the number of students in the subgroup was relatively small, just 119 students. With that small a pool of test scores, poor performance by just a handful of individuals can dramatically affect the overall outcome, McCormick-Lee said.

For the past several years, following an initiative by Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia, more "average" students have been encouraged to enroll in AP classes and take the exam, McCormick-Lee said.

"We're no longer focusing solely on the so-called cream of the crop, students identified by teachers as having the best possible chance of passing the exams," McCormick-Lee said. "When you increase the participation rate as dramatically as we have, the mean score is going to go down."

In an effort to address overcrowding in AP classes, the district this year began offering the courses online as part of its virtual high school. The district has also increased professional development opportunities for teachers to become certified as AP instructors, which will eventually allow more schools to offer the classes.

Clark County School Board President Larry Mason said he was concerned by the poor performance of the district's black students and wondered if teachers were pushing some individuals too far, too fast.

"We certainly need to set the bar high for all of our students but we also need to make sure kids are appropriately prepared for the tasks set in front of them," Mason said.

The continued strides by Hispanic students are evidence of the effectiveness of "raising the bar," Mason said.

"This should be a message to the naysayers out there who claim Hispanics are dragging the district down," Mason said. "Clearly, that is not the case."