Anonymous wrote:Is the AP reporting based on each student taking an AP getting at least one passing score?

Back in the day, in MoCo, there were teachers who had never had an AP student get below a 3. Ever in their career. A high pass rate, which may just be one 3, is not impressive.

It's good that more students are taking AP but a 3 is passing (a college C) so they really shouldn't be passing the HS class if they eventually score below a 3.

This particular AP reporting focuses on tests; it is based on the total number of AP tests taken by students at a school with passing scores divided by the total number of AP tests taken by students at the school.

That's how the College Board reports the information in its main reporting package to FCPS. On the FCPS School Profiles, FCPS focuses instead on students: (1) the percentage of 11th and 12th grade students taking AP courses; (2) the percentage of 11th and 12th students taking AP courses who take at least one AP exam; and (3) the percentage of 11th and 12th grade students taking an AP exam who score 3 or higher on at least one AP exam.

So if you are a student who took 5 AP courses and 4 AP exams, and got a 4 on one exam and a 2 on the other three, the first statistic would be 25% (1/4). However, FCPS would count that student as participating in AP courses, taking an AP exam, and getting a 3 or higher on at least one exam.

Is the AP reporting based on each student taking an AP getting at least one passing score?

Back in the day, in MoCo, there were teachers who had never had an AP student get below a 3. Ever in their career. A high pass rate, which may just be one 3, is not impressive.

It's good that more students are taking AP but a 3 is passing (a college C) so they really shouldn't be passing the HS class if they eventually score below a 3.

Anonymous wrote:The same report indicates the following pass rates (3 or higher) on AP exams last year among the county's 17 AP high schools:

TJ 93.7%
Langley 86.3%
McLean 85.7%
Woodson 81.8%
West Springfield 77.6%
Chantilly 75.5%
Oakton 73.5%
Madison 73.2%
Lake Braddock 71.6%
Herndon 70.6%
Westfield 67.1%
Centreville 63.1%
Fairfax 59.1%
South County 57.9%
West Potomac 56.1%
Hayfield 54.3%
Falls Church 43.4%

To clarify, is this the percentage of students who passed one or more AP tests out of the total number of students at the school? Or does it show the percentage of students who passed out of the number who took the test in each school?

Even when gone. Brabrand’s incompetence has had lasting effects. Compared to a decade ago 9 schools now vs 6 schools then are below the state average. A decade ago, the average FCPS student did 95 points better than the state average standardized to a 1600 scale compared to the average FCPS student only doing 68 points better state average. Every school district had to deal with the pandemic, etc, but Brabrand made things much worse than his peer superintendents.

School 2010 Totals
TJHSST 2200
Langley 1812
McLean 1778
Woodson 1738
Madison 1734
Oakton 1729
Marshall 1690
Robinson 1665
FCPS 1664
Chantilly 1663
West Springfield 1644
Herndon 1642
Lake Braddock 1639
Fairfax 1635
Westfield 1625
Centreville 1596
South Lakes 1578
South County 1572
West Potomac 1561
Stuart 1532
VIRGINIA 1521
Annandale 1518
Edison 1512
NATION 1509
Falls Church 1505
Lee 1504
Hayfield 1475
Mount Vernon 1458

The same report indicates the following pass rates (3 or higher) on AP exams last year among the county's 17 AP high schools:

TJ 93.7%
Langley 86.3%
McLean 85.7%
Woodson 81.8%
West Springfield 77.6%
Chantilly 75.5%
Oakton 73.5%
Madison 73.2%
Lake Braddock 71.6%
Herndon 70.6%
Westfield 67.1%
Centreville 63.1%
Fairfax 59.1%
South County 57.9%
West Potomac 56.1%
Hayfield 54.3%
Falls Church 43.4%

Anonymous wrote:With most Ivy League schools now requiring the SAT once again, students may take the exams more seriously. Scores should trend upwards again with the Class of 2024.

A 50-100 point increase among the top 5% won't really significantly impact the average

Not a good sign, despite some plausible reasons for averages to go down due to greater participation rates.

With TO seeing its expected demise it is a trend that FCPS should work to reverse.

However, I suspect the real reason is that those who could leave FCPS have done so, taking their high SAT scores with them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because FCPS pays for in school SAT day now so a whole bunch of students who would have otherwise not taken the SAT take it. Of course scores went down.

+1. Some of the low-SES schools also offer free SAT test prep classes now too, further encouraging kids who otherwise would never have taken the SAT. It's a net positive for kids even if the mean scores are lower. Who cares about mean scores anyway? It's your kid that matters.

Some of the schools that have seen big declines over the past years are high poverty schools like Falls Church and Lewis. That's consistent with the notion that getting more kids who might not otherwise have taken the SAT to take the test will depress the average scores for test takers.

On the other hand, the only high school in FCPS whose SAT scores have increased over the past six years is Justice, another high poverty school. And Langley also had a 47-point drop over the past six years, even though most Langley kids would take the SAT regardless of whether FCPS was paying for it.

So there are probably a mix of things going on - subsidizing more kids to take the SATs, less focus on the SATs when schools are (or were) test-optional, and changing demographics within particular school boundaries. However, even if some of the decline can be explained away, the overall academic trends within FCPS aren't positive.

Anonymous wrote:Because FCPS pays for in school SAT day now so a whole bunch of students who would have otherwise not taken the SAT take it. Of course scores went down.

+1. Some of the low-SES schools also offer free SAT test prep classes now too, further encouraging kids who otherwise would never have taken the SAT. It's a net positive for kids even if the mean scores are lower. Who cares about mean scores anyway? It's your kid that matters.

Anonymous wrote:With most Ivy League schools now requiring the SAT once again, students may take the exams more seriously. Scores should trend upwards again with the Class of 2024.

What the Ivy League schools require isn't going to have a major effect on FCPS scores. What UVA, VT, and JMU require might.

Anonymous wrote:Because FCPS pays for in school SAT day now so a whole bunch of students who would have otherwise not taken the SAT take it. Of course scores went down.

This. Schools that require all students to take it have naturally lower scores.

With most Ivy League schools now requiring the SAT once again, students may take the exams more seriously. Scores should trend upwards again with the Class of 2024.

Anonymous wrote:Because FCPS pays for in school SAT day now so a whole bunch of students who would have otherwise not taken the SAT take it. Of course scores went down.

There's something else going on besides that but thanks for pointing out that may have been a contributing factor.

Because FCPS pays for in school SAT day now so a whole bunch of students who would have otherwise not taken the SAT take it. Of course scores went down.

Recently saw this information posted on Twitter regarding average SAT scores for the Class of 2023 at the FCPS high schools. The Class of 2024 average scores will not be available until this fall. A local taxpayer group concerned about FCPS's requests for additional funding submitted a FOIA request and received the College Board report from FCPS.

TJ 1516
McLean 1292
Langley 1267
Oakton 1254
Woodson 1236
Madison 1221
Chantilly 1217
Lake Braddock 1196
Marshall 1186
Centreville 1182
FAIRFAX AVERAGE 1181
Robinson 1170
Herndon 1167
Fairfax 1155
West Springfield 1155
South Lakes 1152
Westfield 1141
VIRGINIA AVERAGE 1113
South County 1105
Edison 1104
Justice 1103
West Potomac 1189
Hayfield 1088
Falls Church 1045
NATIONAL AVERAGE 1028
Annandale 1014
Lewis 1005
Mount Vernon 977

Over the past six years, the average SAT scores in FCPS have dropped more than have the average scores for either Virginia or the nation as a whole.