College Board AP Testing Report: Minority Participation Increases But Still Has A Long Way To Go

Ed. Note:The previous version of this story stated that 14 percent of all Hispanic and Latino students passed an AP exam. The statistics actually state that 14 percent of all students who passed an AP exam were Hispanic and Latino. The story has been updated to more clearly reflect the results of the College Board study data.

Although more minority students are taking Advanced Placement tests in public schools than ever before, the College Board's 7th Annual AP Report to the Nation revealed that minority groups are still struggling to keep up.

The report revealed that the number of minority students taking Advanced Placement tests is at an all-time high. The amount of Hispanic, Latino or black students has nearly tripled since 2001.

The amount of minorities who passed increased, yet is still disproportionately low. In the graduating class of 2010, 16.8 percent identify themselves as hispanic or latino, and 14.6 identify themselves as black.

However, of the half a million students who passed an AP exam, only 14.6 percent of those were Hispanic or Latino. For black students, the statistic was even lower -- 3.9 percent.

When discussing the inequity, Marica Cullen of the Illinois State Board of Education told the Chicago-Tribune that it may not be about socio-economic dynamics as much as inexperience.

"I wish we could fix this overnight, but it doesn't fix overnight. When you bring in more test-takers, you get more students who are edging over and challenging themselves for the first time. It's a long process ... to set the bar higher and help kids achieve."

Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Chicago, where 60 percent of students are black, saw great success by pushing for new student involvement. They initiated a letter campaign, urging parents to enroll students in AP classes.

According to the College Board's study, more black students passed their AP psychology exam at Homewood-Flossmoor than any other school in the nation.

Von Mansfield, the high school's superintendent, told the Chicago Tribune,

"Communicating early with our students and their parents has really allowed us to create interest among many, many students."

Trevor Packer, the vice president of the Advanced Placement program, remains positive. He told the New York Times that more AP involvement will lead to college success for minority groups.

"A focus on access and equity is resulting in greater percentages of students going into college with A.P. scores that qualify and result in higher college performance."

Comments

[lisakaz2]

05:30 PM on 02/13/2011

I found out via my own experience why passing might be a problem. I went to a poorer district in a state (that at the time) invested in education. My school had no information about AP tests and testing, so essentially I was on my own. I might have done a lot better if I had been given instruction about the types of questions and how to manage my time better by knowing more about the test. In structured AP classes, some of this is part of the curriculum. I know this is essential for the AP European History test (probably World History too) given something called a Document Based Question (DBQ). The DBQ has a formula for how it's graded and if you don't precisely do the things it asks, such as grouping of documents (better have 3) and at minimum 3 comments about the point of view presented on a document (commenting on 3 documents, that is), you cannot manage a decent score, no matter how well written or how well you understand the documents and the task presented in the question.

As I understand it, ppl who take formal AP classes get a better handle of what might be asked as well as how to answer an essay. I'm betting minority students don't get a lot of solid instruction in this area. Not all AP teachers even know enough about offering this help unless they've actually been part of grading the essay portion of an AP test.

[medic628]

12:29 PM on 02/13/2011

As with a lot of stories that Huffpo runs about a person's of color to use an over worked term. The images that you present depicting people are in a negative light. WHY? The text is about one thing and the images say something completely different. What kind of mixed message or code are you communicating? What is your point?

[faith2hope]

01:14 PM on 02/14/2011

Totally agree with you, this should have been a article that lean towards the positive and from the photo to the article title, the positive of this story is overshadowed by the author with the overwhelming need to spot light the negative. This photo has nothing to do with the story itself, Why HP must you keep doing this?

[SeptimusDSX]

10:29 PM on 02/11/2011

The picture sucks. In all the wide world of pictures of students, you chose one with students asleep to point out an increase in AP student participation?

[fem56]

04:10 PM on 02/12/2011

I was just thinking the same thing and just about to post it.

[SeptimusDSX]

05:18 PM on 02/12/2011

Makes you wonder what the writer intended to convey?

[LearnMe]

07:35 PM on 02/11/2011

"Now that we know—well, some of us always knew—the oversized role that compliance plays in masking true assessment of academic achievement, grades as the preferred measure of suitability for accelerated life may not make much sense. I was always a special case. On the day in middle school when we were told which track we’d be taking for the duration of our precollege lives, my science teacher called me to his desk and announced for all to hear, “You are a dilemma.”"

http://learnmeproject.com/2010/12/17/absolute-contingency/

[OrchidBlack]

12:59 AM on 02/11/2011

To Ron46032 and other oafs trying to make a pseudoscientific argument making the claim that black people are inherently less intelligent than other races because of their race…

Differences in intelligence are attributed more so to environmental factors not a genetic component. For this argument to have any iota of credibility one must assume that there are extant subspecies’ of Homo s. sapiens and those separate ‘races’ demonstrate differences in intelligence quite possibly due to some genetic basis i.e. race but there are no subspecies of humans we all belong to the same family… Homo s. sapiens. To take this further, race is indeed a social construct; there is no biological basis for race. All humans share about 85 percent of the same genes. The remaining genes are not enough to establish separate races of people amongst humans.

Furthermore, since the Bell Curve is constantly used to support this erroneous claim, perhaps you should educate yourself. Once again, this notion has been debunked decades ago as well and is still being discredited today by many notable scholars.

*Oh and by the way, I am a published scientist and have been educated quite well.

[OrchidBlack]

01:44 AM on 02/11/2011

http://www.indiana.edu/~intell...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re...
http://www.psychologytoday.com...-

Marks, D.F. (2010). IQ variations across time, race, and nationality: An artifact of differences in literacy skills. Psychological Reports, 106, 3, 643-664.

Dickens, W. T., & Flynn, J. R. (2006) Black Americans reduce the racial IQ gap: evidence from standardization samples. Psychological Science, 17, 913-920.

Fish, J. M. (Ed.) (2002). Race and intelligence: Separating science from myth

*You should probably read the work of Templeton, Marks, Dickens, Flynn, and Fish before you even bother to comment about race and intelligence.

[OrchidBlack]

02:15 AM on 02/11/2011

Oh and Ron, your comment didn’t get posted but I read it, as well as similar posts from other uneducated fools in this thread.

Another facet of your argument, which you used as support for your larger argument, was that, clearly genetics plays a part in the differences of the races so why can’t that be so with intelligence. You went on to cite examples like disease, genetic mutation, and or athletic ability.

If you had any scientific understanding, you would know that those differences are attributed to how each group had to physically adapt to their environment and you would also know that random errors in replication, which can result in mutation, are common and this usually occurs when errors are not fixed. However, these errors are often repaired during the process of proofreading and mismatch repair.

Also, mutations can occur because of random changes to DNA and also to environmental factors. There are dozens of types of mutations and reasons for them. But of course you could not have known that because willfully remaining nescient makes it easier to hang on to your pseudoscientific bigoted ideology.

[Rooster Coburn]

12:46 PM on 02/10/2011

Actually, I think you'll find that Asian-Americans, especially those from north-eastern Asia, Chinese, Koreans and Japanese, score higher than do Americans of European descent.

[tek knowledge]

01:55 PM on 02/10/2011

Take your bell curve logic and stick it where the sun don't shine.

[Rooster Coburn]

02:09 PM on 02/10/2011

Is there something the matter with you today?  Missed you "meds" maybe?  Better check.

[satishHindu]

12:48 AM on 02/11/2011

Indians do as good as North-Eastern Asians.

[LisaLisa1234]

12:27 PM on 02/10/2011

I hope that the International Baccalaureate program continues to grow while AP diminishes. Instead of teaching to pass a test, the IB kids are taught to learn and to think. A perfect GPA is not necessarily a sign of a potentially successful IB student, because many kids these days can get A's by repeating back what they have been taught, rather than absorbing the knowledge and learning to think.

It was shocking to learn that only 2 countries (and sometimes Canada) accept a regular U.S. high school diploma directly into their universities; all other countries require U.S. high school graduates to take remedial courses before they can matriculate. The IB diploma is accepted everywhere. This is what America should be offering all her children.

[fem56]

01:21 PM on 02/10/2011

You've got me interested. I know nothing about the IB progaram. My kids took AP courses. They were lucky the teachers just taught the course and did not teach to the test. There are manuals that teach kids how to do well on the test. I was never thrilled with the AP curriculum but I guess it is one way to give kids a standard curriculum across different schools. Maybe the IB curriculum is much better.

[FiredUpRTG]

11:36 AM on 02/10/2011

Seven steps to turn this around:

1) Make sure grade, middle early high school education provide a strong academic foundation. 2) Communicate early and often. 3) Tell about the advantages of taking AP test in HS. 4) Announce that it is expected of them to take and do well on the test. 5) Hire competent AP teachers. 6) Drill baby drill 7) Tell the parents about expectations and advantages.

This is not being done in many neighborhoods with poorly-performing minority populations.

[sixtieschild]

12:21 PM on 02/10/2011

Here is link to an article regarding the long-term benefits of quality preschool programs:

http://www.gulfbend.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=2081&cn=28

[Tresco]

11:30 AM on 02/10/2011

I'm rereading The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. I'm at the part where Douglass is about 17 and has just left the service of Edward Covey and has been hired out to William Freeland. The slaves work sunup to sundown six days a week but they are secretly teaching eachother to read and write because they want education and are willing to risk severe punishment to get it. Today education is free and manditory yet yourg people don't want to learn because ... why? I don't know. They just don't give a rip. There's nothing wrong with minorities or even with the schools that desire and atitude can't overcome. I don't mind spending a fortune educating our children but spending more money is not making things better. Money almost does not matter. It's a very minor factor. I certainly don't blame teachers. It's a societal problem. As a society we undervalue education and public education has become a dumping ground. A place to wherehouse children until they are 18. What a waste. We need to stop trying to educate every the same. If a student shows little intrest or aptitude they need to be removed from the program and placed in another that is better suited to their intrests and abilities. Vocational, service related, agricultural, many possibilities to succeed. If they make no effort they should be returned to their parents care until such time that they can demonstrate something that justifies readmission.

[tek knowledge]

12:05 PM on 02/10/2011

Are you aware that this article is about kids who do care about their education?

If they didn't care, they wouldn't be taking the AP test in the first place!

[Tresco]

09:24 AM on 02/11/2011

If the kids cared about their education many time their number would take the AP test and they would blow the doors off it. Old textbooks and a limited access to computers would not stop them or even be a challenge to them. People use any means to get what they want they will go to extremes. If the people in Frederick Douglass' secret slave school or the ones that risked a beating or worse in the 50s and 60s could see the sorry state of things now they would be enraged. And this is not a "black" thing either. The majority of young people and their parents today simply do not understand the value of education. School should be a place for serious scholars only. "Students" who will not behave properly or make a strenous effort to succeed should not be there. We don't have the resources to educate them and it;s pointless to try. No other country attempts to educate thugs and willful dunces.

[BlacknProud310]

01:45 PM on 02/10/2011

You are aware that there are so many other problems facing the minority student on a day to day basis as opposed to their counterparts. For example, computers in classroom are 10:1 (10 students to 1 computer) in urban areas and 10:8 in rural and other non-minority markets figuratively. This along with the outdated textbooks and limited scholastic resources contributes to this problem.

http://insideschools.org/blog/2010/03/08/high-school-hustle-high-school-hustle-overloaded-backpacks-and-outdated-textbooks-a-better-way/

[Logorrhea]

07:27 PM on 02/13/2011

Good points, but I think we must teach our children that they are capable of succeeding despite these problems. When I hear folks talk about how hard things are today, I remind them about what Harriet Tubman must have endured, how Nelson Mandela was left to rot for 27 years in prison, how little Ruby Bridges must have felt in kindergarten, and so forth.

Yes, these problems may seem insurmountable and they are serious, but they must not become an excuse for failure. Having computers in schools is wonderful, but our kids are having trouble with the basics (e.g., reading fluency and comprehension, math computation, writing, etc.). These subjects can be taught quite successfully without the benefit of computers. (I realize that citing computers was just an example on your part, but I've heard that argument many times.)

I'm a volunteer tutor in my area, and I know that our children can succeed when the bar is set high and the expectations are set. I've seen fifth graders who read at a first-grade level at the beginning of the school year, and I've seen them finish the term on a seventh-grade level. It was a lot of work and there were tears shed (theirs and mine). I had to apply a lot of tough love -- mainly aimed at the parents, sadly, but it is possible. I let those kids know that I was holding them to the same high standards of my own children.

[sixtieschild]

11:20 AM on 02/10/2011

The comments in response to this article are similar to the thread on an article regarding preschool programs. Most comments are offensively racist, and the oversimplification is mind boggling.

One year after I was born, nine African American students enrolled in all white Little Rock Central High School. They were greeted by the Arkansas National Guard and mock lynch mobs blocking their entrance. Eisenhower had to send in federal troops to enforce integration and protect the nine students. Those nine children risked their lives and endured hell to pave the way for others to obtain an equal education. The fact that we elected an African American president in my lifetime is a remarkable testament to the courage and sacrifice of those nine children and others that came after them to obtain an equal education.

Sadly though, the fight, although more subversive continues to this day. Poverty and racism is something that many of these hate-filled people commenting have never endured, and they obviously do not have the capacity to understand just how difficult that they are to overcome. I wonder if they would have had the courage to do what those nine children did to lead the way. I wonder where they would be if they had to endure the present-day circumstances of poverty and racism.

[tek knowledge]

02:08 PM on 02/10/2011

Faved.

[inmyhumbleopinion]

11:19 AM on 02/10/2011

This situation is no different than the general performance lag between minorities and white or Asian students, and it boils down to one thing: socio-economics. The question we have to ask ourselves is not how these tests or our schools need to be reformed, but how will we support kids who are from disadvantaged backgrounds who want to achieve? It starts with parents--they have to be fully on board and set expectations for homework completion and college-prep work. But beyond that, there needs to be a cultural shift among these communities that doesn't denigrate education. If a kid hears her whole life that education is only for white people, she'll begin to believe it. How do we combat the negative influences they face every day? Where can they turn if their parents or community are not supportive?

We need a nationwide network of after-school programs like A Place Called Home. http://www.apch.org Their model works. It should be a government-sponsored program instead of a non-profit.

[MarcEdward]

11:06 AM on 02/10/2011

Here in Chapel HIll NC, where we have the best school system in the South East, we have the AP classes open to all who want to take them. The African American students choose not to take AP course by and large. We've even had the head of the local NAACP attacking our district for even having AP Courses, because "they are elitist".
If some people decide, ON THEIR OWN, that they don't want to take AP courses, it's not the fault of the school system.

[tek knowledge]

11:15 AM on 02/10/2011

Based on an AP Class that I was in in high school, teachers don't do their best not to alienate their nonwhite students in the class.

That is the main problem, not the fact that black students are "allowed" in this class.

[HerrMonk]

11:22 AM on 02/10/2011

Don't do their best not to alienate?

What are you talking about. Are you suggesting that minorities should get special treatment and encouragement?

There's something called culture (I know most of you materialists don't really believe in it), and what MarcEdward is identifying is a culturally , not materially-based, phenomenon.

[MarcEdward]

11:29 AM on 02/10/2011

teachers don't do their best not to alienate their nonwhite students

What does that mean? 
Aren't teachers there to teach? Not being sarcastic, I just don't have any idea what you're talking about. It's the STUDENT'S JOB to learn, it's not the teachers job to coddle students.

[tek knowledge]

10:28 AM on 02/10/2011

They always studying black people for some reason...SMH, maybe its time to admit that these "standardized tests" are culturally biased once and for all.

And maybe we need to focus on the Good News that more black students are enrolling in AP Classes than ever (And I'm sure they're not flunking these classes if they stay in them).

When i was in HS, i was only one of the 2 black kids in AP English (11th grade). No Latinos, No Asians.

I felt so out of place, i dropped down into Honors in 12th grade.

[tek knowledge]

10:36 AM on 02/10/2011

Also, why are they showing a picture of 3 children with their head down? What was the intent behind this picture juxtaposed next to the article title.

[MarcEdward]

11:01 AM on 02/10/2011

(1) Cultural Bias? And the evidence is what?
(2) In our district (Chapel Hill Carrboro), where they have been working like mad for the past decade to try to deal with the problem of "equity", our schools have been attacked for having AP classes at all. The head of the NAACP has held demonstrations because "AP Classes are for white people". In short, the AP classes are open to all, and African American students choose not to take these classes. It's not discrimination, it's choice.

[tek knowledge]

11:13 AM on 02/10/2011

The evidence are the thousands of people who graduated college with decent to great GPAs who did average on the SAT/ACT or AP test.

I got a 3 on my English AP Exam, but got an A- in both of my English classes in an upper echelon private university. LOL, those tests are no predictor to how well these kids will do in college.

2nd, i suggest you re-read the article. The article clearly states that more black and latino kids are enrolling in AP classes than ever, the problem is that when it comes time to take the test, none of them can get 4s or 5s. So, no the problem is not "discr!m!n@tion" as more nonwhites are enrolling in AP Classes.

3rd, it doesn't matter whether people are "allowed" to take these classes or not, its that from personal experience, I chose to not take a second AP Class because I felt alienated in my own classroom because I was black, ESPECIALLY because 11th Grade English focused on Huckleberry Finn. Me and the black female in the class were ALWAYS put on the spot and required to speak for all black people (like whites do ALL the time). It was this level of being uncomfortable which forced me to go FROM AP English 11 to Honors English 12 when i was in high school.

It isn't so much about being "allowed" to take the classes, it is feeling unwelcome in your own class.

[BDrummer]

09:51 AM on 02/10/2011

I hate when an article is based around race, when clearly it has more to do with social/economic status

[madatnewsmedia]

10:19 AM on 02/10/2011

And on top of that, they show this group with their heads down on the desk! That automatically make folks think negatively of those students.