What is Success in an AP Course?

 I've made no secret that I'm a firm believer in the value of the Advanced Placement (AP) program from the College Board. For years, I've advocated to expand the program in my school and others. One argument I hear against schools developing AP programs is that it is difficult to earn a passing score on an AP Exam. This argument suggests that student success is completely determined by scoring well enough on the AP Exam to earn college credit for the course. I posit that a student can find success in an AP course, even if their AP Exam score misses the mark to earn college credit.

The AP curriculum is more rigorous than any other high school curriculum I've seen. AP exams are administered worldwide, with qualifying scores earning the student credit for comparable college courses at most universities and colleges. In this world where so many students leave high school with super high GPAs, but are required to take remedial (not-for-credit) courses in college, the mere exposure to courses of college-level rigor will do more to prepare students than a transcript filled with A's in courses they just coast through. 

I earned a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and a master's degree in Mathematical Sciences. I remember my Statistics and Calculus courses. This is my 10th year to teach AP Statistics and my 3rd to teach AP Calculus. I also taught Introduction to Statistics as an adjunct college instructor for a couple of years. I often tell my students, if you earn a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP Exam in either Statistics or Calculus, you know more about the subject than many college students who pass the corresponding course. A long time ago, a math teacher told me she earned a D in Calculus in college, and she was glad to get it. Students who pass an AP Exam can rest assured they've learned as much or more than most taking the course at a lot of universities.

Some students may not score a 3, 4, or 5, but a 1 or a 2 doesn't necessarily imply failure. Remember, these are high school students taking college-level courses. Even if they don't earn college credit, they learn SOMETHING! I didn't take an AP course in high school, but I remember how easy Calculus was for me in my freshman year because I took the course in high school. I remember how difficult Business Statistics was for me in college because I'd never taken a statistics course before I got to college. I remember failing Western Civilization as a young college student because I never really learned to write in high school. I could fill this post with anecdotes from my students' testimonies of how much better prepared they were than their classmates for their college courses because they took AP classes. Students who take AP courses in high school will be more prepared for college-level coursework, regardless of their score on the AP Exam in May. 

According to the Arkansas School Report Cards from the 2021-2022 school year, only 41.3% of graduating Arkansas seniors enrolled in a college or university within 12 months of graduation from high school. Of those, 70.1% were required to take remedial college courses. Put those two numbers together and we see that only 12.3% of graduating seniors enrolled in college courses within 12 months of graduation and didn't have to take remedial courses. (Students must pay for remedial courses, but these courses do not count toward a college degree.) We must do something to better prepare our graduates for college. 

I believe AP courses offer the best opportunity to do just that. The state of Arkansas pays for teachers to attend AP Summer Institutes to train them to teach AP courses. State law also requires schools to offer a minimum of four AP courses, one in each core subject area. Many schools offer more than that. The infrastructure is in place to provide an AP experience to more students. Now we just need students, parents, teachers, counselors, and administrators to recognize the benefit of more students taking these courses. 

To make that happen, we need to clearly communicate that success in an AP course can occur even if the student doesn't score a 3, 4, or 5 on the exam. In fact, success for each individual can look different. For an extremely gifted math student, success in AP Calculus may mean nothing less than a 3, while success in an AP Literature class may be a 2. Some students who score a 1 might claim successful completion of an AP course if s/he finishes the course more prepared for the corresponding college course than before taking the AP course. Finishing an AP course could make the difference that makes those remedial courses unnecessary, saving the student thousands of dollars, even if the student scores a 1 on the AP Exam. 

Let's rethink the definition of success in an AP course. Success is defined by more than the exam score. If a student takes the course and finishes it better prepared for his or her future, that should be considered successful completion of an AP course.