Advanced Placement and West Virginia

A news release from the Southern Regional Education Board arrived in this morning’s mail. The headline pronounced good news: “SREB states lead the nation in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs.” The information inside had bad news: West Virginia lags again.

Nationally, 24 percent of graduating seniors took at least one AP exam in the 2006 school year. In the SREB states (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia), 26 percent did. The greatest percentage was in Florida, where 33 percent took and passed at least one AP test.

Do you have to guess which state had the lowest percentage? Yep, we were right there at 14 percent.

Kentucky, by the way, came in at 17 percent.

Now check out the percentages of those who scored a 3 (passing score) or higher. Nationally: 15 percent. SREB states: 14 percent. Kentucky: 9 percent. West Virginia: 6 percent.

Remember, this comes when the Cabell County Board of Education is thinking about eliminating the AP physics class at Cabell Midland High School.

According to the SREB news release, all West Virginia high schools must offer at least four AP courses or equivalent IB courses by fall 2008.

I have some knowledge of AP and IB, but I plan to learn more this coming school year.

What I really want to know is, are we here in West Virginia pushing our kids to learn? Do we give them the same opportunities to improve their academic skills that we give our athletes?

Why aren’t more of our children taking AP or IB courses? Is it because parents aren’t demanding them? Or do we offer something better?