Fewer San Benito High School students took advanced placement courses but more took the optional AP exams, which students must pass to earn college credit.
At the school board meeting last week, staff officials reported that 20 fewer students enrolled in AP courses but there was an the uptick in the number of students taking the exam with 59 more of them testing in 2014-15 than in the prior school year.
San Benito High School doesn’t require students to take the assessment. But if the youth don’t take them, they have no chance of earning college credits for the courses.
“We’ve started to think about having every child take the AP exam,” Superintendent John Perales told the Free Lance in an interview. “We’re looking into making that change—if not this year, then the following year.”
Some high schools would never require all students to take the exam because traditionally, the best and most prepared students in the classroom were encouraged to take it so the school could report a healthy percentage of pupils passing the test, Perales said.
AP tests are graded on a 5-point scale with students scoring a 3 or better earning college credit. The school already has a $10,000 fund in place to help students with financial need pay for the tests, the superintendent said.
A slightly smaller-than-normal group of students enrolled in the classes in 2014-15 when 427 students embarked on the challenge, a 20-person drop from the prior school year.
“It is a normal fluctuation,” the superintendent said.
Despite the slight drop in the number of students taking AP classes, more youth took the AP exam in order to earn college credit. Perales credited the change to the fact that he pushed students to take the exam last year.
More females than males enrolled in the AP courses, according to the PowerPoint presentation that staff shared with trustees. Females made up 60 percent of the students enrolled in AP classes.
Enrollment numbers showed a lower proportion of Latino students took the AP courses, according to the same PowerPoint.
Behind the low turnout, Perales added there’s probably an additional three factors at work: poverty, being a minority groupand social capital. The data show more students of color come from poverty, and the superintendent imagined that it played a role in the traditional gap with fewer students of color in high-level classes, he said.
“What we’re doing now is we’ve completely revamped our counseling department and it’s open enrollment, which means there’s no prerequisites for the courses and we’re encouraging our students to challenge themselves,” Perales said.
