Taking an Advanced Placement class, struggling with college-level material and earning a low grade on the exam is a learning experience, argues Jay Mathews in the Washington Post. Many more students from low-income families are taking AP courses, in part due to Mathews' 25-year-old AP Index, which ranks high schools by the percentage of students taking AP exams. However, most don't score well enough to earn college credit. That's OK he writes.
Sixty percent of AP exams taken by low-income students result in scores of 1 or 2, the equivalent of an F or D, reports the New York Times.
Students who earn less than a 3 see no benefit, because they "leave the courses with neither a college credit nor, presumably, a firm understanding of college-level material,” editorializes the Washington Post.
That's not true, writes Mathews. "AP students with average scores of 1 or 2 on their AP exams were 16 and 19 percentage points, respectively, more likely to enroll in a four-year college than academically similar peers who did not take AP," according to a College Board study. In addition, students who scored a 2 had "higher grades in college introductory courses than similar college students who did not take an AP course in that subject."
AP students take a three-hour exam with challenging essay questions, he writes. The tests are graded by someone who's never met them, so there's no favoritism. It's tough -- and it's preparation for the challenges they'll face in college.
Teenagers learn to try, fail, learn from failure and eventually succeed when they play video games, writes Mathews. They can do that in academic subjects too.
"Kind teachers have long tried to encourage struggling students by giving them grades better than they deserved," he concludes. "But many of us who have had to deal with a disappointing grade know the result is often that we try harder, and thus learn more."