nothin Cross Leads AP Pack | New Haven Independent

Cross Leads AP Pack

Students at Wilbur Cross led the way as the number of New Haven high-schoolers trying their hand at Advanced Placement (AP) tests jumped 13 percent in 2010.

The state this week released the results of the tests, which students took last spring. Statewide, 2,000 more students took the AP tests in 2010 compared to 2009, according to state officials. The tests are scored on a scale of 1 to 5. Students who get a passing score of 3, 4 or 5 can earn college credit on subjects like history, physics and calculus.

Statewide, 20,135 students in grades 9 to 12 took at least one AP test in 2010, according to a state Department of Education press release. Statewide, 70.6 percent of the tests earned passing scores of 3, 4 or 5. The passing rate fell from 71.3 percent the prior year.

Even as New Haven’s high school enrollment fell from 5,208 to 5,078, the number of kids participating went up, though their passing rate lagged behind the state average.

A total of 528 New Haven students took AP exams in 2010, a 13 percent increase over the prior year.

Click here to see New Haven public school scores; click here for the state release.

Schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo applauded the participation.

I am pleased to see a continued increase in the number of students taking the AP exams,” said Mayo in an emailed statement. Our teachers and principals are doing a wonderful job raising the bar by encouraging more and more students each year to push themselves in high school. Our students are taking challenging courses and getting a head start by earning college credit before they graduate.”

The vast majority of kids who took the tests didn’t do well enough to get that head start.

In 2010, 271 New Haven students earned college credit by scoring a 3 or above on the exam. That computes to a passing rate of 30.9 percent, down from 35.1 percent the year prior. The rate remains 40 points below the state average.

Supreintendent Mayo praised the results: The more students push themselves in high school, the better they will do in college and later in life.”

Mayo also celebrated that New Haven is ranked number five in the state for the number of students taking the exam.” New Haven beat Hartford and Bridgeport on that measure, even though the other cities have more students.

Mayo applauded Wilbur Cross High School for leading the district in participation: 170 students took AP exams, a 24 percent increase over the prior year. Cross, the city’s biggest high school, is known for its AP program. That means 10.5 percent of Cross students took the tests, compared to 8.6 percent of the 947 students at the city’s other comprehensive high school, James Hillhouse.

Hillhouse showed increased participation and some improvement in scores: 11 more students took the test in 2010, bringing the total to 81. The passing rate on 126 tests was 7.1 percent, up from to 4.6 percent in 2009.

Cross students scored the highest in the district: students earned passing scores on 183 of 345 tests.

Thirty-three more students took the test at Cross in 2010 compared to 2009; as they joined the passing rate at Cross fell from 61.9 percent to 53.0 percent.

Hill Regional Career High School had the second-highest passing rate, with passing scores on 26.3 percent of the 194 tests taken by 126 students.

One of the district’s nine high schools, New Haven Academy, had fewer than six test-takers, so the state didn’t report those results due to confidentiality rules. Click here to see the rest of the New Haven schools’ scores.

The state also gave results for the city’s two charter high schools.

Amistad Academy showed relatively high participation but no passing scores.

In 2010, 23 Amistad students took a total of 44 AP tests. There were 122 students in the high school that year, according to state records.

None scored a 3, 4 or 5 on any test. In 2009, 28 students took a total of 62 AP tests. Only one student scored a 3, 4 or 5 that year.

Students at Common Ground, the environmentally themed charter in West Rock, fared better. Fifteen students there took AP tests in 2010; their passing rate was 31.3 percent.

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