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From the Desk of Bill Cirone...
June 4, 1999
Exceptional academic achievement again in evidence
We hear over and over again how our high school students are failing these days. We hear that they are reading at an elementary level or not at all. We hear that they can't make change. We even hear that they have no idea where New Mexico is or certainly Kosovo.
There are definitely some instances where this is the case. But the important point is that it does not represent the majority of today's high school students.
Scrutiny is too often focused on students failing to achieve academically. There is another side of that coin that goes under-reported and virtually unknown, and that is the story of high student achievement. In fact this past year alone, 86,000 high school students around the country were recognized for exceptional academic achievement by the College Board.
What's more, over 1,400 students in 46 states and the District of Columbia received the National Advanced Placement Scholars (NAPS) award, the top award for academic achievement in the College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) Program.
Recipients of this award have mastered the equivalent of at least two years of college-level courses in high school and have an average grade of 4.0 or above on eight or more college-level AP examinations. This is no small achievement.
Interestingly, California leads the nation in NAPS recipients with 403, followed by New York with 130 and Florida with 123. This success comes in a state where we are told over and over that our schools and our students are failures. Some may be. Many are not.
Students in over half of the nation's secondary schools participate in the College Board's Advanced Placement Program, which makes the honor all the more worthy.
Besides the NAPS, the College Board recognizes three other categories of AP achievement, each of which set a record in number of recipients in 1998:
o AP Scholars of Distinction&emdash;17,808 students with average grades of 3.5 or above on five or more AP exams;
o AP Scholars with Honors&emdash;18,584 students with average grades of 3.25 or above on four or more AP exams;
o AP Scholars&emdash;45,814 students with average grades of 3.0 or above on three or more AP exams.
Donald N. Stewart, president of the College Board, stated, "These students have shown that they can handle virtually any academic challenge in college. By entering a rigorous program of study in high school, they have already acquired the self-discipline and study skills required for exceptional work."
Certainly these are bright, motivated, disciplined students. But they were not born knowing the material that is reflected on these tests of content. Achievement levels on these difficult tests demonstrate once again some of what is right about our public schools.
© Santa Barbara County Education Office
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