Fewer students enrolled in Daviess County Public Schools are taking Advanced Placement (AP) classes than in years past. According to DCPS officials, this decrease is due to changing socio-economic trends and a desire to earn college credit with more certainty.
With more high schoolers opting for guaranteed college credit by taking dual credit classes or enrolling for classes at Owensboro Community & Technical College, officials with DCPS believe this trend is affecting the number of students who sign up for AP courses.
According to DCPS Assistant Superintendent Jana Beth Francis, AP classes are equivalent to college classes, but students can only accept college credit from the AP course if they score a 3, 4 or 5 on the challenging AP exams, which are taken toward the end of the course.
“We had 1,156 seats of AP students [last year],” Francis said. “Out of that, there are a lot of kids who are taking more than one exam, but we have over a thousand students taking exams. There were 811 exams taken this year by 448 students.”
Going over district statistics from the last five years, Francis said the number of AP exams taken has gone down, as well as the number of students taking AP classes.
“We had a grant for several years from Advanced Kentucky, but, now — with the dual credit scholarship and early college program — we see some of our students who’d be in AP classes opting to take classes at the community college, or opting for dual-credit opportunities,” Francis told DCPS board members.
Even so, Francis said 451 AP exams met the qualifying score, which is a plus for the program. The district hit a high mark in 2016, she added.
Those who take the AP exams take it seriously, Francis said.
“They want to do well on those, and most students put their best effort forward,” she said. “I think the biggest factor is that more students are taking classes off campus.”
Francis responded to the board’s questions about more students sitting for AP classes and tests by saying students with high intelligence and ability should not be funneled out of advanced classes before they reach high school.
“As a parent, KEES money makes a big difference — if you’re an A/B student, and you take a challenging class, that adds up to the amount of money you have for college, so that plays into this,” she said. “If we start selecting students out of those advanced classes at an early age, it becomes challenging to get them to sign back up for them.”
Socioeconomic issues play a big role in the number of students taking college credit courses instead of AP as well, said board member Dale Stewart.
“That’s true for dual credit and kids who are taking classes at OCTC directly because the AP class goes back to that one exam, and [college credit] is not a sure thing,” she said. “If you’re a student who works hard, you get a B in a dual credit or community college class, you carry that with you. If you get a B in an AP class, and you have an off day on the exam, you don’t get that credit.”
As stated by Superintendent Matt Robbins, a statewide statute that allows community college credits to transfer directly to state universities has had an effect on AP class numbers as well.
“Maybe three years ago, the legislature had passed a bill requiring any credit earned at the community college to transfer directly to the state universities,” he said. “You do have the economics that come into play — the parents, on the other hand, are thinking, ‘My goodness, I can buy college credit hours at 10 percent of the cost of what’d it cost me at a university.’ We see them making those value-based decisions, and you can’t hardly blame them there. But it’s in direct competition with the AP classes.”
