Cicero’s J.S. Morton High School District has pushed its mostly low-income students to take tough Advanced Placement courses and exams — just like teens do at elite high schools — and participation in the program has soared.
The number of students taking AP exams doubled in five years, and the total exams taken across AP subjects nearly tripled.
The result: Passing rates plunged, with many Morton students unable to score high enough on the exams to get college credit — a key benefit of the AP program and a way to shave college tuition bills.
Starting next school year, a new Illinois law requires public universities and community colleges to award credit for getting at least a 3 on the AP exams’ 5-point scale, considered a passing score though some universities prefer awarding credit for scores of 4 or 5.
But even a 3 has been elusive for thousands of Illinois public high school students, test results show. About 95,000 students took some 176,000 AP exams in May, and nearly 40 percent of exams scored below a 3.
And while AP participation has surged in Illinois in the past five years, passing rates have slipped, including at many schools that have boosted the number of teens taking AP exams, according to a Tribune analysis of data released for the first time by the state.
The AP results for public high schools, obtained by the Tribune through public records law, raise questions about whether students who couldn’t pass were ready for the college-level classes, and how much more preparation they’ll need to handle additional AP classes and pass the exams that will allow them to benefit from the new law.
The subject is a provocative one, with some educators passionate about exposing students of all backgrounds to AP — whether kids pass the exams or not — while others are cautious about whether that’s the best approach.
Trevor Packer, head of the AP program at the nonprofit College Board based in New York, said even students who get scores below 3 can still benefit from AP by attending a rigorous class, becoming familiar with a college-level syllabus, experiencing intensive reading and other benefits.
The College Board has long administered the AP program in high schools across the country and internationally, and has pushed to widen access to AP to students of all backgrounds.
“We are fundamentally opposed to the gatekeeping that was happening 20 years ago and it continues,” said Packer, referencing roadblocks — such as test scores or grades — that keep kids from getting into honors and AP classes in high school.
‘Monster growth’
The AP program offers more than 30 subjects — from Art History and Macroeconomics to U.S. Government and Politics — though the number and type of courses vary by high school. Kids can boost their grade-point averages by taking the courses — AP classes typically are given more weight in the GPA formula — as well as get college credit depending on their exam scores.
The program generates revenue for the College Board from exam fees, usually $92 per exam this school year in the United States. A spokesman says the money is invested into programs and services, including millions for fee reductions for low-income students. Schools get a rebate of $9 per exam to help cover administration costs. And schools with large numbers of exams get additional rebates ranging from $250 to $3,000, to cover expenses for managing an AP program.
At Illinois’ most affluent and elite high schools, a score of at least a 3 is common.
For example, New Trier’s Winnetka Campus, Lake Forest and Deerfield high schools in the Chicago suburbs have posted passing rates higher than 90 percent for five years in a row, the data show. Likewise, in Chicago, Northside College Prep has posted passing percentage rates in the high 80s and low 90s since 2011.
The passing rates are based on the total number of exams taken across all subjects, compared with the number of exams with scores of 3, 4 or 5.
New Trier’s passing rate slipped from 95.5 percent in 2014 to 93.1percent in May 2015 when nearly 900 students took the tests, the highest number in five years.
Spokeswoman Nicole Dizon said the North Shore school’s philosophy is that AP classes and exams should be age-appropriate — freshmen and sophomores aren’t allowed to take AP courses and upperclassmen aren’t forced to take them.
“We have a huge AP curriculum available to our kids, but again, we really value the age-appropriateness of our philosophy and the fact that we also have the flexibility to have our excellent teachers create a curriculum outside of the AP curriculum that has the same rigor,” Dizon said.
J.S. Morton District 201 Superintendent Michael Kuzniewski encourages all kids to participate in AP, even if they’re not the best and brightest students.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you we are a shining example of student achievement,” Kuzniewski said, “but we are showing some monster growth in exposing kids to a higher level curriculum.”
He added: “The philosophy is that in most school districts, the AP program is for a select few. It is very targeted and rigid on who can access the higher level curriculum. It has been de facto segregation and tracking.”
Students taking AP classes in the largely Hispanic district must take the corresponding exams, Kuzniewski said, and, “Even if kids don’t get a 3, 4 or 5, the exposure to the rigorous curriculum has increased their chances for success.” District schools celebrate scores of 3, 4 or 5, he said, but, “We’d love that number to go up.”
In fact, the numbers have gone down.
Only 18.7 percent of the 2015 AP exams in May garnered passing scores at Morton West, down from 33.9 percent in 2011. At Morton East, passing rates dropped from 30.6 percent to 23.5 percent between 2011 and 2015 — not a good sign for students who’d like to get college credit under the new law.
Still, Kuzniewski pointed out that the district recently made the College Board’s “Annual AP District Honor Roll” because of its commitment to increasing access to AP to a diverse group of students, as well as other factors.
At Lane Tech College Prep, a selective enrollment school in Chicago, passing rates dipped to 57.1 percent on the 2015 exams, the lowest in five years but still one of the best performances in Chicago Public Schools, where several dozen schools posted passing rates below 10 percent. At some CPS schools, not a single exam earned at least a 3.
Lane Tech’s drop followed a rise in test takers as well as total exams — 4,850 exams across all subjects in 2015 compared with 2,217 in 2011.
Principal Kathryn Anderson said even freshmen are taking AP, starting with AP Human Geography.
“There are concerns, such as, ‘Are they mature enough to handle it?’ but we do put things into place to ensure students are supported,” she said, such as helping kids with study skills and organization.
Lowest passing rate in 5 years
AP participation has spiked across public schools, fueled mostly by Chicago region students taking the exams. The number of test takers has risen by 36 percent since 2011, and the total number of exams by more than 40 percent.
Illinois’ passing rate for public schools was 62.8 percent for the 2015 exams — the lowest in the last five years, when passing rates were 64 percent to about 66 percent.
Illinois ranks in the middle of the pack among the 15 states with the largest public school enrollments of upperclassmen. This year, New Jersey had the highest results, a 71 percent passing rate, followed by Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan and New York.
A breakout by exam subjects in Illinois shows wide variations. For example, nearly 20,000 public school students in May sat for the AP exam in U.S. History, one of the most popular college-level AP courses offered at Illinois high schools.
But almost half of those teens didn’t pass. The same thing happened on popular AP exams in English Literature and Composition and U.S. Government and Politics: Nearly half of test takers failed to score at least a 3.
Yet there were high passing rates in exams such as Spanish Language and Culture and Psychology, the data show.
And not all schools saw drops in scores after increasing AP participation.
Chicago Public Schools district has boosted the number of test takers and exams, as well as passing rates over five years, the data show. The passing rate across all CPS schools was about 38 percent this year, the highest since 2011.
“Chicago’s students set new records this year in AP course participation and exam pass rates, suggesting more of our students will enroll in college and eventually graduate,” a spokeswoman said.
DuPage County’s Glenbard West maintained a passing rate of roughly 79 percent over a five-year period, even as the number of test takers and total exams rose significantly.
Rebecca Sulaver, the assistant principal over instruction at West, said it comes down to hiring very good teachers, offering a large array of AP courses and encouraging — rather than blocking — access to those classes.
When AP exam time comes around, “Our teachers will hold nightly review sessions,” Sulaver said. “Teachers will order pizza. We’ll have nights where the library is full, with teachers giving review session and all kids are in attendance.”
But at the other three high schools in the Glenbard 87 district, passing rates have slipped as the schools brought more students into the AP program. Glenbard Superintendent David Larson pointed out that the passing rates are still above national and state averages.
AP alternatives
Despite the surge in participation, not all schools buy into AP.
At Will County’s Reed-Custer High School, few students take the AP courses or exams and dual-credit offerings are popular, with kids able to get college and high school credit at the same time, often by taking a course at a local community college.
“There are no guarantees that students will pass the AP exams,” said Christine Nelson, the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning at the Reed-Custer district. “We offer both (AP and dual credit), but we are finding that our kids are much more successful with the dual-credit courses.”
Geneva High School has offered about 15 AP courses over the last five years — fewer than some of the other top-performing high schools.
The number of students taking the exams has gone up over five years, and the passing rate slipped to 83.2 percent on the May 2015 exams, down from 87.9 percent in 2011.
“Just saying, ‘Let’s just push a whole lot of kids to take an AP test’ — that’s not what we’re all about,” said Andrew Barrett, assistant superintendent for learning and teaching in the district.
Even if students take the courses, they’re not required to take the AP exams, he said.
“I think that the AP folks, the College Board … they’ve done a tremendous job of marketing,” Barrett said. “People … automatically assume that the more kids taking AP, that must mean the better the place (the high school) is. I don’t see it that way.”
Twitter @diane_rado
