AP participation grows

By Anna Mitchell  

MARCH 10, 2010 11:05 a.m. (0)

Countywide, 2,315 seniors, or 54 percent of that class, took the SAT in 2009. The average composite score in the test’s three areas – reading, math and writing – was a 1479, the same as the previous year and better than the state if not the national average.

McCreary reported which schools had the highest scores – Riverside (1633), Eastside (1539) and Mauldin (1537) – and which ones had the greatest year-over-year improvement – Carolina Academy (131 points), Mauldin (64) and Wade Hampton (61).

School board member Dan Moravec said he was least impressed with the SAT results, though, because the test for aptitude doesn’t reflect a student’s actual knowledge of the district’s core curriculum. The SAT was designed to evaluate a student’s language skills and grasp of mathematics fundamentals.

“The SAT has a very low correlation with freshman GPA,” Moravec said. “And when I look at the AP, it’s speaking directly to what’s going on in the classroom.”

(A 2009 College Board study would dispute this, finding a strong link between high scores and good grades in a student’s first year of college independent of his or her family income).

The ACT, which tests students on actual knowledge gained in the classroom, remains less popular among students in Greenville County – with 1,449 seniors taking it last year – but that number is 50 percent more than were taking the test just five years ago.

Greenville students’ scores on the ACT, an average of 21.4, exceeded state and national averages (19.8 and 21.1 respectively).

Persistent among the test scores, though was a significant gap between the performance of white students and black students – 4.7 points difference on the ACT,  362 points difference on the SAT and about half the passing rate on the AP exams.

“The gap between students is very apparent,” board member Leola Robinson-Simpson said. “It’s as cleas as the nose on our faces.”

McCreary said he’s found if a student’s prior academic achievement is low, his or her test scores will be lower.

“That holds true for several years, down through middle and elementary school,” he said. “There are other indicators we don’t have access to but have held true. The highest predictor for success on the SAT in the state is the mother’s education.”

One of the answers to low achievement in any school or among any subgroup, he said, is to raise expectations of the students and increase the rigor of their coursework.

Board member Debi Bush said she also thinks kids need to be well versed on test taking so they will be prepared for entrance exams and college tests later in life. She said her son was exempt from taking final exams through much of his schooling in Greenville County.

“He breaks into a sweat to this day if a test is mentioned,” she said.

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