Initial Mississippi STEM Program AP Scores Show Strong Results
The Global Teaching Project has begun to receive results for the AP exams taken in May. Though most results are not yet available, the initial results are heartening. Among the highlights:
- Our students accounted for a very high percentage of AP test takers in Mississippi, and comprised almost all AP STEM test takers in the state’s most impoverished school districts.
- Simply by taking the AP exams, our students earned a place among an elite group. Fewer than 0.3 percent of Mississippi high school students even attempted the AP Physics 1 exam, and fewer than half of those students earned qualifying scores. The numbers for AP Biology, AP Computer Science Principles, and AP Statistics are comparable.
- The initial AP results affirm, once again, that students from all parts of Mississippi, very much including the state’s most impoverished communities, are capable of high achievement if given the opportunity and quality instruction.
- We are awaiting results from most of our schools, but, thus far, students from counties that have among the top 10 highest poverty rates of Mississippi’s 82 counties earned scores that placed them among the top students in the state in AP Biology and AP Computer Science, earning college credit as a consequence.
- In addition to individual accomplishments, early reports include classes that, as a group, performed exceptionally well. For example, in an AP Computer Science class, 85 percent (11 of 13) of students achieved qualifying scores—that is, scores that earn students college credit—more than double the percentage for all Mississippi examinees and far higher than the percentage among all test takers. Their teacher wrote to GTP, “Scores are in, and I can’t thank you enough for your help, guidance, support and resources. Thank you so much!” In another district, all 3 AP Physics 1 students scored 4 or 5 (the top scores); statewide, only 22 percent of students who took the exam—themselves an elite group—did so.
We recognize that AP scores are not the most illuminating measure of our students’ success, but the scores—and much more so, taking AP classes and the related exams—are nonetheless important.
As we often note, our goal is to have students learn, and learn how to learn, and the metrics showing they have done so are best assessed in outcomes that are not evident for years. AP exams show only where students are after just a few months, and because they do not measure students’ baseline knowledge, they do not indicate the progress students have made during that time.
Studies show that even students who do not have qualifying scores on AP exams benefit from taking the courses. APs alter their academic trajectory by developing their substantive knowledge and study skills, resulting in academic achievement that becomes increasingly evident over time. Perhaps most important, AP students also tend to view themselves as part of a high-achieving cohort, and work to achieve a future commensurate with their ambitions, rather than their circumstances.
