Once again the administration has offered up a glowing review of our school system's academic performance that is simply misleading, this time regarding GHS's 2011 Advanced Placement scores: "2011 Advanced Placement Scores Reflect Ten Year Highs." The reality?
First, the release touts a ten-year high in AP "enrollment." But that is the least relevant metric of the program. The important measure is not how many bodies one puts in seats in AP classes, but how many of those students both take and pass the corresponding year end exam. This year barely three in four students enrolled in AP courses managed to take and pass the corresponding AP exam (76%), which represents a ten-year low, and the third straight year of decline.
The "challenge index," which measures the number of AP tests taken by all students divided by the number of students in the senior class, did, indeed, rise to a ten-year high. But the figure barely increased compared with the year before. The figure also remains far below marks attained by many Westchester County public high schools. The index for Rye High School and Bronxville is more than double that for GHS, as are Great Neck North and Great Neck South in Long Island. Nationally, the Washington Post ranked GHS #967, representing another sharp drop over the previous year, and the lowest rank ever for GHS. Compared with Connecticut public high schools GHS ranks 11th. Yet Connecticut school districts are distinct laggards within the New York metropolitan region and nationally. For example, on that measure GHS would rank behind 100 public high schools in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area alone.
The school district also touts a ten-year high in the percentage of graduates who have taken and passed at least one AP exam by graduation, which reached 44.8% this year. But what the release failed to point out is that that percentage represents virtually no change since 2005, when the figure was 44.1% of all graduates. In contrast, Great Neck South and Horace Greeley put 80% of their students through with a passing grade, Edgement High School 87%. Clearly, though technically correct, the "ten-year highs" claim obscures the fact that improvements in key areas have been marginal or declined over a number of years in the GHS AP program.
Also not mentioned in the press release are some disturbing negative trends in the most rigorous AP courses. For example, the number of GHS students taking the AP Biology exam has fallen by nearly half since 2007. When Connecticut's state government is spending millions to nurture a biotechnology industry here, our school system should be working to expand enrollment in that discipline, not let it decline. In addition, the number of students taking AP science exams overall was virtually unchanged over the past year, and only marginally higher than in 2005.
We have also seen virtually no improvement in the number of students taking AP Calculus since 2006. Though an initiative to raise the percentage of students taking Algebra by eighth grade was initiated six years ago, a move that should have resulted in more students qualifying to study Calculus in high school, the initiative has fallen short.
There are also some notable declines in core subjects in the social sciences and humanities. The number of students taking the AP English Literature exam has dropped by over 40% since 2007, marking a ten-year low. The number of students taking AP French has dropped by two-thirds since 2005. The number of students taking AP European History has also dropped over the past three years.
The bulk of the increase in AP tests taken come from the introduction of the new Comparative Government course in 2009, and a large increase in students taking Psychology. It is positive that students are taking AP courses overall. But we should be targeting the core courses that are the most rigorous and contribute to a solid secondary school education: math, science, history, languages. In many of those core courses, we've seen multi-year declines.
The motto of Greenwich Public Schools reads: "Setting the standard for excellence in public education." If our town's school system is to turn that aspiration into a reality, it is imperative that the BOE set a high standard for our Advanced Placement program, and hold the administration to the attainment of those standards each year. Simply claiming "ten-year highs," when in many key areas we've seen declines or lack of real improvement does not move us toward a standard of "excellence."
sbgoldrick@gmail.com
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