There are many ways that students learn and grow from AP courses and that growth is not measured by a College Board test score.
For some, the challenge of more sophisticated reading and writing and more emphasis on a broader range of recalled knowledge leaves them with a greater appreciation of what they can accomplish when they are challenged to perform at an academic level higher than they first think they are capable. These are the students who score poorly on the first unit tests of their first AP course. They soon realize that the reading and study habits that served them so well in the past will not serve them adequately in an AP course, they can no longer save the reading until the night before the test, they can’t just look at a list of terms once. After seriously questioning their ability to succeed when their first test grade is the lowest they’ve ever scored, they begin to focus their attention and energy on learning how they learn. By sharpening their reading and study habits to conform closer to the way they learn best, they improve their test scores as the year progresses. The way these students have learned more about the way they personally learn and the experience of overcoming a seemingly insurmountable challenge is not reflected in an AP test score. Any student can reap all of these benefits and still score a “2”.
For others, the growth may not be in discrete academic skills, but rather in the executive functions of time management and attention. These are the students who never had to think a week or even a couple of days in the future, they didn’t have to plan ahead to do well. Even with one AP class in their school schedule and a couple of extra-curricular activities and/or athletics in their life schedule, they can’t get by without keeping a calendar and more importantly, holding themselves accountable to their schedule. Any student can develop scheduling strategies and focus skills as a foundation for further growth, and still score a “2” on an AP exam.
The College Board score of a “3” on an AP exam counts as “passing” the test and may count as college credit for some students in some programs at some universities. Chatham High School Social Studies teachers design and implement instruction for their AP courses with that goal in mind. All of them have completed multi-day workshops in their courses sponsored by the College Board, several of them have graded national exams as well, giving them special insight into just how individual question formats are assessed. Still, they’ll collaborate on lessons and look through instructional data that accompany these results, using past student performance on multiple-choice, free response, and document-based essays to inform the instructional decisions they make this year.
It's not uncommon for pass rates to rise and fall within a given percentage from year to year, though New Jersey students traditionally do better than students nationally, and the Chatham High School pass rate is traditionally greater than the state average. This year's shifting schedules, in-person and remote rotations, and a whole host of factors across hundreds of individual teacher, student, and family circumstances make conclusive takeaways from test scores unlikely.
Still, many students left their AP classes last year thinking about their lives and the lives of others differently. They have better writing, talking, and thinking skills, as well as more polished work habits and dispositions that are not measured by any assessment. All in all, there have been successes on many levels to congratulate all students and teachers for a job well done.
