AP Report to the Nation 2008

I have some questions (and comments) about the tables in Appendix B of the AP Report to the Nation 2008.

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/ap-report-to-the-nation-2008.pdf

Pages 51 and 52 tell me that 51,423 black members of the Class of 2007 (US Public Schools) took a total of 113,590 AP exams. 

For clarity, I’d like to know if the exam totals for each course included in the table represent Class of 2007 black members who took the exam at the end of the 2006-07 school year.  In other words, if Jasmine took AP Human Geography as a freshman, but graduated in 2007, is she counted in the total for AP Human Geography in a table titled: “AP Exams Taken In US Public Schools by Class of 2007″? 

Or does the Human Geography exam total represent members of the Class of 2007 who took the exam in 2007? 

Or does the Human Geography exam total represent all black students taking the exam in 2007?
 

My thought is that the table reflects the exams that members of the Class of 2007 took during their high school career, but that would not accurately portray the mean scores listed for each exam, which I must assume are the mean scores for exams taken in 2007.

On the other hand, maybe the table is just a snapshot of exams black and other seniors took only in 2007.  That would certainly make sense relative to the number of students and total exams taken. A simple fix might be to add “in 2007″ in the title of the table, i.e., “AP Exams Taken In US Public Schools by Class of 2007 in 2007.” 

A significant phenomenom occurring in Florida and I suspect other places is the rising number of AP classes seniors have on their final high school transcripts.  The annual AP reports remain silent on this “invisible gap” that exists for black students. 

A St. Petersburg Times reporter did a story about our celebration for seniors from Florida House District 59 who were graduating in May 2007 with four or more AP classes. Within “Signing Day isn’t just for athletes”

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/18/Hillsborough/Signing_Day_isn_t_jus.shtml, we learned that “District 59 claimed just one percent of more than 2, 800 Hillsborough students with four or more AP classes on their resumes. Most individual high schools count more students reaching that bar. Plant High School, at the high end, has 339.”

When I look at the tables, I notice that the mean score for the exams rarely is 3.0 or above.  This leads me to surmise that the true value of these reports is in the subliminal message to the majority: “Keep having children take as many AP classes as possible.” 

Now that the door is closing

Higher Education on the Brink Final Draft This ENLACE report alerts legislators in Florida of potential (real) impacts on college access for students seeking admissions to the state’s public universities. 

This is a good time for community leaders to watch out for and guide students who have the academic potential to prepare for college success.  This is a great time at the local level for this type of affirmative action—and strategic leadership—now that the door to higher education opportunities at state universities is closing.

A relatively small pool of black students who live in key urban zip codes still may benefit from the limited enrollment opportunities in the years ahead.  For them to do so, though, it will take some hard work on their part and on the part of those who serve as advocates for them.

In zip code 33610 for example, there are over 60 black, faith-based organizations.  Hard work may result in 10 black females and 10 black males from the zip code receiving acceptance letters from state universities each year.

Vigilance is key.  Nothing states that the local public education system has to produce this outcome.  Nothing states that local churches will go out of business if the zip code does not produce 20 competitive applicants for state universities each year.  The systems in place can still blame students, parents, schools—and legislators—for not producing this outcome.

Perhaps future ENLACE and other reports will highlight affirmative actions taken by community leaders to help minority students gain access to the dwindling number of seats available at state universities.