October 5, 2015
DPS
released 2015 AP results last Thursday.
At Abraham Lincoln High School, of the 53 students taking the AP Language
and Composition test, 1 student received a passing score. Of the 31 students taking the Physics 1 test,
2 passed. On the Biology AP, 3 out 33
taking the test passed.
-From Denver Public School’s Department of
Accountability, Research and Evaluation. (Details, page 3)
|
At CEI’s web site - Look for “Complete
Report” – an odd term, when this data only tells the story from 2013 of CEI’s
FIRST-year work in 23 of its schools.
Average First-Year Growth
(23 Colorado Legacy Schools)
|
It’s a mystery why the Colorado Education
Initiative, which tells journalists about the success of its Advanced Placement
Initiative, continues to post the good news on its website about the first year of its work with 23 schools …
from 2010-2013. Nothing on its work with those schools (Cohorts 1 and 2) in years
two and three. Nothing on 2014, or 2015. Nothing on its work with its 10 newest high
schools (Cohort 3) (http://www.coloradoedinitiative.org/our-work/colorado-legacy-schools/results/).
It’s a mystery why channel 9, a year ago, did not insist that CEI’s Dr.
Greg Hessee, leading this effort as Director of the Colorado Legacy Schools, provide
data to support his assertions about the success of the program.
|
In AV#114 I showed its boast of a 70%
jump in qualifying scores “during the 2012-2013 school year” was inaccurate;
it was closer to 33% based on the data made available by the Colorado Legacy
Foundation. A main reason every time I see claims like
this I ask: any proof?
|
Nov. 20, 2014 - Colorado Education Initiative
celebrates increasing access to Advanced Placement classes to more diverse
student. (Nelson Garcia)
Hessee says
so far, the program is working. At the schools where the program currently
exists in Colorado, he says 73 percent [see
box-left] more students took AP courses and passed the exam for college
credit.
It’s mystery why The Denver Post, last May, spoke of the “remarkable
results,” the stunning increase in the number of students in poverty
and minority students achieving
qualifying scores–when CEI gives the public no evidence to back it up those
claims. The Post’s commentary revealed
a lot, unknowingly, by quoting Hessee’s crass statement about more “butts in
seats”—and one incentive for students. $100.
Cool!
May 16, 2015
Opinion - Should students be paid for success? (by Jeremy Meyer)
The program is now in its fourth year and in 34 Colorado high
schools, but it isn't really about scores, Hessee said.
"It's more about getting butts in the seats in more rigorous
courses," he said.
"It is to dispel peer pressure for those kids who we know are
AP capable and AP worthy but who generally opt out of those classes."
Many of those are kids of color, females or those in poverty, who
get razzed for taking the brainy courses.
"They can turn around to their peers and say, 'I got $100 for
my test, how about you?' " he said. "That's a pretty damned good
response."
The program is targeted for schools with at-risk populations,
including several in the Denver area. When it is first introduced, enrollment
in AP classes generally jumps by 80 percent, he said.
The results are remarkable. Students in poverty generally see a 78
percent increase in qualifying scores. Latino and black students see a 107
percent increase.
It’s a mystery why Chalkbeat Colorado
reports on CEI’s summer workshop for AP teachers and only provides data on the
growing number of students taking AP
classes. We might as well talk about the
growing number of students taking the Colorado driving test to get a license. I’d feel a bit safer on the highway if we knew:
Are they passing? Are they learning
what they need to be good drivers?
July 17, 2015
At summer seminar, teachers learn advanced
courses aren’t just for some (by Susan Gonzalez)
More than 60,000 Colorado
high school students were in enrolled in at least one AP course during the
2012-2013 school year. That’s 7,000 more than just five years before, according
to data from the Colorado Department of Education.
And it’s mystery why the Colorado Department of Education, does not
tell CEI to stop making certain claims that appear on its website:
·
“Today, we act as the innovation and R & D
partner for CDE.” http://www.coloradoedinitiative.org/who-we-are/history-accomplishments/
·
“We work in partnership with the Colorado Department of
Education and education, business and policy partners across the state to
accelerate bold improvement in student achievement through innovation,
collaboration and capacity building.”
To the best of my understanding,
CDE initially viewed CEI (when it was created in 2007, known as the Colorado
Legacy Foundation) as a partner. CEI
states it was originally set up “with the narrow focus of raising funds to help support the
Colorado Department of Education.” While
that arrangement has changed, it is hard to be an R & D partner to anyone
when you won’t release data to show if and how and where an effort in 34
schools is proving effective. In the age
of accountability, our state department of education might wish to disavow ties
to a “partner” apparently so unwilling to be accountable.
The case of the missing data
Sherlock Holmes, where you are you when we need you most!
Someday the mystery will be cleared up.
Someday journalists will dig into and demand hard data to see if CEI
can verify its claims.
Someday, the CEI board will wake up and tell its executive director
that—notwithstanding CEI’s strong staff and much good work, the organization’s
credibility is being undermined by its failure to be accountable for the
results of its AP initiative—especially in schools like Abraham Lincoln.
Until then, let’s check in when
new facts become available.
As CEI continues to provide no recent data to support its claims of
success, especially in the kind of high schools which have been the focus of my
newsletters* on the AP push the past two
years (#95- Mismatch – Adding more AP
classes in low-performing high schools
- March 26, 2013; #114 – Questions
continue on rationale for more AP classes in our lowest-performing high schools
-June 4, 2014; and AV#126 - AP Results - What the Colorado Education
Initiative Won’t Tell You -Feb. 3, 2015), I return here—as I did
last February—to the one source providing helpful data (Denver Public Schools),
in one school taking part in the CEI Initiative (Abraham Lincoln). (Addendum
A - three excerpts.)
*All available at my web site – https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1829681342965014641#allposts.
The AP results for 2015, in red
below, were released Thursday by the Department of Accountability, Research and
Evaluation at Denver Public Schools. All
data at http://dpsare.com/teachers/test-results/.
Our thanks to DPS for being
accountable and reporting this information to the public.
In Colorado, in 2015, the average
% of scores at 3 or above – considered passing scores”- was 60.2% The U.S. average, in 2015, it was 57.5%. See Addendum
B.
Abraham
Lincoln High School
AP Tests in MSE* passed
– from DPS Accountability, Research & Evaluation
*MSE = Math,
Science, and English courses – the focus of CEI’s AP Initiative
|
|
2012 – BEFORE CEI AP INITIATIVE
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2013 – First year of CEI AP INITIATIVE
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2014 – 2nd year of CEI AP INITIATIVE
|
2015 – 3rd year of CEI AP Initiative
|
||||||||
|
|
N tested
|
N passed
|
%
|
N tested
|
N passed
|
%
|
N tested
|
N passed
|
%
|
N tested
|
N passed
|
%
|
|
Biology
|
8
|
*
|
*
|
8
|
*
|
*
|
13
|
*
|
*
|
33
|
3
|
9%
|
|
Calculus AB
|
29
|
2
|
7%
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26
|
1
|
4%
|
35
|
13
|
37%
|
38
|
8
|
21%
|
|
Chemistry
|
0
|
*
|
*
|
11
|
*
|
*
|
9
|
*
|
*
|
11
|
*
|
*
|
|
Computer
Science A
|
13
|
|
|
11
|
*
|
*
|
9
|
*
|
*
|
8
|
*
|
*
|
|
Eng. Language & Composition
|
77
|
4
|
5%
|
75
|
3
|
4%
|
86
|
3
|
3%
|
53
|
1
|
2%
|
|
Eng. Literature & Composition
|
37
|
4
|
11%
|
49
|
2
|
4%
|
37
|
0
|
0%
|
28
|
4
|
14%
|
|
Environmental Science
|
0
|
*
|
*
|
|
|
|
13
|
*
|
*
|
15
|
*
|
*
|
|
Physics B
|
24
|
0
|
0%
|
37
|
1
|
3%
|
18
|
3
|
17%
|
31***
|
2
|
6%
|
|
Physics 2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3
|
*
|
*
|
|
Statistics
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7
|
*
|
*
|
11
|
*
|
*
|
|
|
167**
|
10
|
6%
|
187**
|
7
|
3%
|
176**
|
19
|
11%
|
183**
|
18
|
10%
|
* Scores not reported for groups with fewer than 16
students.
** Total of tests taken where # passed is available
***Now called Physics 1.
Abraham Lincoln
is hardly alone as a low-performing Denver school where, even without CEI’s
backing, the results suggest the district’s AP push (see http://www.denverpost.com/ci_16254380.
Denver’s push for students …” 10/5/2010) is misplaced. See Addendum B for the grim results in several other DPS schools.
I wish I could also provide details on the AP results at Aurora Central
High, which, along with Abraham Lincoln, has been part of CEI’s Cohort 1. Up until 2013 Aurora Public Schools released
results on the AP tests at its high schools. But as of year ago March, the APS Division of Accountability
and Research told me “our office doesn’t
do the AP report any longer.” Yes, the
Division of A….. The mystery continues.
Another View, a newsletter by Peter Huidekoper, represents
his own opinion and is not intended to represent the
view of any organization he is
associated with. Comments are welcome.
303-757-1225 / peterhdkpr@gmail.com
Addendum A – Yes, I repeat myself …
FROM Another View #94 (March
26, 2013)
“The easy answer? - As hard as an AP class can be for a student, as
demanding as it is for a teacher to learn the curriculum and attend all the
professional development classes to teach an AP class well, what we may need to
admit is that AP FOR ALL is an easy answer.
It doesn’t require the more difficult work of figuring how to adapt curriculum
and instruction to help a 10th grader move from unsatisfactory to
proficient by the time he or she graduates—or to wrestle with bigger questions
about the impersonal structure of our large high schools, and much more. All of us who have followed trends—fads?—in
public education need to ask if we are caught up in another one, especially
when the facts we look at say: this is not working.”
FROM Another View #114 (June
14, 2014)
“… in our high schools, especially those where most
juniors and seniors are not at grade level, let’s ‘meet students
where they are.’ Revise and adjust what is taught. Help students finish up
college-ready. This will be a far better use of time and
resources than adding AP classes at schools like Bruce Randolph where [in
2013]—the Spanish AP’s exempted—just 5 out of 126 passed in 2013. What’s the
point of that?”
FROM Another View #126 (Feb. 3, 2015)
“My argument all along – in my first piece on this
issue (AV#95 - Mismatch - Adding more AP
classes in low-performing high schools - Why
the push to expand AP classes in schools where so many students fail to achieve
qualifying scores?) and last year – has been
that the AP Initiative is an inappropriate choice for schools where most
students perform below grade level. It
does not address a much bigger problem. Abraham Lincoln High School in Denver
has been my prime example—but it is not alone. In AV#95 I reported that
Lincoln’s AP scores (4 out of 77 passed AP English tests in 2012) indicated it
was one of several high schools where the AP expansion by DPS (“Advanced
coursework is pushed in DPS,” Denver Post,
Aug.21, 2009) made little sense.
Addendum B – SCHOOL REPORT OF AP EXAMS 2014 & 2015
(BY STATE)
|
% scores of 3 or above
|
2014
|
2015
|
|
Colorado
|
60.4%
|
60.2%
|
|
U.S.
|
58.7%
|
57.5%
|
Addendum C- AP results in 7 other DPS high schools*
·
Bruce Randolph:
the Spanish AP’s exempted—just 13 out of 134 passed; a passing rate of 10%.
·
High Tech Early
College: the Spanish AP’s exempted—just 10 out of155 passed: 6.5%.
·
Martin Luther
King Early College: Spanish Language AP exempted—15 out of 203: 7%.
Overall passing rate
for:
·
DCIS Montbello
- 11% (19/179);
·
Venture Prep - 11%
(4/35);
·
Manual - 10%
(8/82);
·
West Leadership
- 4% (1/27).
*From DPS Division of Accountability, Research and Evaluation - http://dpsare.com/teachers/test-results/
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