Read the blog entry, link to the story in USA Today, and post a comment on orlandosentinel.com.
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_educ...s-enrolled.html

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AP failure rate climbs, raising questions about push to get more students enrolled

posted by lesliepostal on February, 5 2010 11:40 AM

The percentage of students failing Advanced Placement exams is climbing, with the problem most acute in the South, according to a story today in USA Today.

The story says the AP failure rate in Florida is 45 to nearly 55 percent, not as high as in Arkansas, Mississippi or New Mexico but still among the highest in the nation.

The paper’s analysis of nationwide failure rates suggests that while there has been a huge push to get more students into A.P. classes (very true here in Florida) there doesn’t seem to have been a comensurate effort to prepare students for the work or make sure their teachers are well trained to teach the A.P. curriculum.

A.P. courses are meant to offer high school students challenging, college-level curriculum. The A.P. exams are graded 1 to 5. For its analysis, the newspaper considered a 1 or 2 failing, as students usually need at least a 3 to earn college credit.

“The findings about the failure rates raise questions about whether schools are pushing millions of students into AP courses without adequate preparation — and whether a race for higher standards means schools are not training enough teachers to deliver the high-level material,” the story said.