Moving to the U.S. soon. What is the difference between/among regular, honors and AP courses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The percentage of Black or African American graduates in the MCPS Class of 2017 that earned at least one AP exam score of 3 or higher was 28.2; this is 21.5 percentage points higher than the rate for Blank or African American graduates in the nation (6.7 percent). The AP Exam performance rate by Hispanic/Latino graduates in MCPS was 35.3 percent; this is 12.0 percentage points higher than the rate of Hispanic/Latino graduates in the nation (23.3 percent)

So you are saying only a quarter of AA students passed just ONE AP exam with a 3 and they mark that successful? If the kids are getting A’s in AP they should easily be getting 4’s and 5’s on the AP exam - so long as the class is taught correctly. But we all know it isn’t.

Whether or not MCPS is a few point higher than the rest of the country is irrelevant. Those numbers are absolutely terrible and embarrassing. How many parents spend how much money on these exams? College Board has duped us all.

28.2% of Black or African-American graduates earned at least one AP exam score of 3 or higher.

Where is the percentage of 2 or more or 3 or more? Are they no giving us those stats. Very vague indeed.

I would love to see stats of grades in the actual class and then the AP test score - for all races. But of course they would never post that b

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The percentage of Black or African American graduates in the MCPS Class of 2017 that earned at least one AP exam score of 3 or higher was 28.2; this is 21.5 percentage points higher than the rate for Blank or African American graduates in the nation (6.7 percent). The AP Exam performance rate by Hispanic/Latino graduates in MCPS was 35.3 percent; this is 12.0 percentage points higher than the rate of Hispanic/Latino graduates in the nation (23.3 percent)

So you are saying only a quarter of AA students passed just ONE AP exam with a 3 and they mark that successful? If the kids are getting A’s in AP they should easily be getting 4’s and 5’s on the AP exam - so long as the class is taught correctly. But we all know it isn’t.

Whether or not MCPS is a few point higher than the rest of the country is irrelevant. Those numbers are absolutely terrible and embarrassing. How many parents spend how much money on these exams? College Board has duped us all.

28.2% of Black or African-American graduates earned at least one AP exam score of 3 or higher.

Where is the percentage of 2 or more or 3 or more? Are they no giving us those stats. Very vague indeed.

I would love to see stats of grades in the actual class and then the AP test score - for all races. But of course they would never post that b

Start with a correct understanding of the information they do post.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all of this very useful info. So they offer AP courses to freshmen students? That seems very surprising to me. If they are truly college level courses, I am surprised they would offer them to students four years prior to college. My friend's kids go to private school and she told me they couldn't take any AP classes until their second year and then it was only 2 of them if they had done well in their freshman honors courses. Do private schools give these extra points for these courses too? If not, how do private school students compete GPS wise with public school students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- there is significant grade inflation in MCPS and more importantly a lack of rigor in grading overall that makes it really difficult for kids to get anything lower than an A or B. The kids getting C or lower grades usually have undiagnosed learning disabilities, struggle with organization/losing or forgetting their work or are just not doing most of the work. Yes, the regular classes in MCPS are remedial.

MCPS -at the high school level- does not practice gate keeping. Many schools require more rigorous placement tests, test performance or high grades to be in honors or AP courses. MCPS is the opposite. In many lower performing high school, MCPS pushes kids that are not academically capable into AP courses so it can report higher numbers of kids in those courses. You'll see that the AP scores vary pretty highly among schools.

This doesn't square with reality. This is fake news.
MCPS leads the nation in AP passing rate.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=8161&type=&startYear=&pageNumber=&mode=
Minorities in MCPS do better in AP than anywhere in the nation.

where in the article do you see this?

Anonymous wrote:The percentage of Black or African American graduates in the MCPS Class of 2017 that earned at least one AP exam score of 3 or higher was 28.2; this is 21.5 percentage points higher than the rate for Blank or African American graduates in the nation (6.7 percent). The AP Exam performance rate by Hispanic/Latino graduates in MCPS was 35.3 percent; this is 12.0 percentage points higher than the rate of Hispanic/Latino graduates in the nation (23.3 percent)

So you are saying only a quarter of AA students passed just ONE AP exam with a 3 and they mark that successful? If the kids are getting A’s in AP they should easily be getting 4’s and 5’s on the AP exam - so long as the class is taught correctly. But we all know it isn’t.

Whether or not MCPS is a few point higher than the rest of the country is irrelevant. Those numbers are absolutely terrible and embarrassing. How many parents spend how much money on these exams? College Board has duped us all.

Sigh.
Reading comprehension is vital...which you seem to lack.
28% passed AT LEAST one AP exam with a 3 or HIGHER. That's way better, not just a few points, than the 6%nationwide.
But keep on hating.

Btw, how does college board dupe us since they only administer the test, not teach the class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all of this very useful info. So they offer AP courses to freshmen students? That seems very surprising to me. If they are truly college level courses, I am surprised they would offer them to students four years prior to college. My friend's kids go to private school and she told me they couldn't take any AP classes until their second year and then it was only 2 of them if they had done well in their freshman honors courses. Do private schools give these extra points for these courses too? If not, how do private school students compete GPS wise with public school students?

Yes. My high-school kid took AP US Government and Politics last year as a 9th grader.

Are they "truly college-level courses"? Maybe. I don't really care. What I do care about is that they're good classes for my high-school kid to take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The percentage of Black or African American graduates in the MCPS Class of 2017 that earned at least one AP exam score of 3 or higher was 28.2; this is 21.5 percentage points higher than the rate for Blank or African American graduates in the nation (6.7 percent). The AP Exam performance rate by Hispanic/Latino graduates in MCPS was 35.3 percent; this is 12.0 percentage points higher than the rate of Hispanic/Latino graduates in the nation (23.3 percent)

So you are saying only a quarter of AA students passed just ONE AP exam with a 3 and they mark that successful? If the kids are getting A’s in AP they should easily be getting 4’s and 5’s on the AP exam - so long as the class is taught correctly. But we all know it isn’t.

Whether or not MCPS is a few point higher than the rest of the country is irrelevant. Those numbers are absolutely terrible and embarrassing. How many parents spend how much money on these exams? College Board has duped us all.

28.2% of Black or African-American graduates earned at least one AP exam score of 3 or higher.

Where is the percentage of 2 or more or 3 or more? Are they no giving us those stats. Very vague indeed.

I would love to see stats of grades in the actual class and then the AP test score - for all races. But of course they would never post that b

You can go to the college board website, you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all of this very useful info. So they offer AP courses to freshmen students? That seems very surprising to me. If they are truly college level courses, I am surprised they would offer them to students four years prior to college. My friend's kids go to private school and she told me they couldn't take any AP classes until their second year and then it was only 2 of them if they had done well in their freshman honors courses. Do private schools give these extra points for these courses too? If not, how do private school students compete GPS wise with public school students?

No privates do not grade inflate, curve, or offer many AP’s. Some like Sidwell offer none, but their graduates get into top notch schools. The local admission directors know the rigor at the college prep schools compared to MCPS easy A’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all of this very useful info. So they offer AP courses to freshmen students? That seems very surprising to me. If they are truly college level courses, I am surprised they would offer them to students four years prior to college. My friend's kids go to private school and she told me they couldn't take any AP classes until their second year and then it was only 2 of them if they had done well in their freshman honors courses. Do private schools give these extra points for these courses too? If not, how do private school students compete GPS wise with public school students?

No privates do not grade inflate, curve, or offer many AP’s. Some like Sidwell offer none, but their graduates get into top notch schools. The local admission directors know the rigor at the college prep schools compared to MCPS easy A’s.

Although many private school students take lots of AP tests even if their class is not labeled AP. I had one in private and one in public and the content of their classes was pretty similar. AP US History was the same as advanced US history. And my MCPS student had to work hard to get an A in APUSH (and a 5 on the test, so must have learned something along the way).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all of this very useful info. So they offer AP courses to freshmen students? That seems very surprising to me. If they are truly college level courses, I am surprised they would offer them to students four years prior to college. My friend's kids go to private school and she told me they couldn't take any AP classes until their second year and then it was only 2 of them if they had done well in their freshman honors courses. Do private schools give these extra points for these courses too? If not, how do private school students compete GPS wise with public school students?

No privates do not grade inflate, curve, or offer many AP’s. Some like Sidwell offer none, but their graduates get into top notch schools. The local admission directors know the rigor at the college prep schools compared to MCPS easy A’s.

I dont think you are able to speak about all private schools which are quite diverse in grading and course offerings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all of this very useful info. So they offer AP courses to freshmen students? That seems very surprising to me. If they are truly college level courses, I am surprised they would offer them to students four years prior to college. My friend's kids go to private school and she told me they couldn't take any AP classes until their second year and then it was only 2 of them if they had done well in their freshman honors courses. Do private schools give these extra points for these courses too? If not, how do private school students compete GPS wise with public school students?

No privates do not grade inflate, curve, or offer many AP’s. Some like Sidwell offer none, but their graduates get into top notch schools. The local admission directors know the rigor at the college prep schools compared to MCPS easy A’s.

Although many private school students take lots of AP tests even if their class is not labeled AP. I had one in private and one in public and the content of their classes was pretty similar. AP US History was the same as advanced US history. And my MCPS student had to work hard to get an A in APUSH (and a 5 on the test, so must have learned something along the way).

Yes, privates do inflate grades even more so than publics.