[Ohiogift] New AP study

[Eric C Calvert]

Thanks for sharing this, Margaret.

I was intrigued so read the actual NBER report. (I didn¹t hit a paywall,
but it might be because I hit the link from a university-owned IP
address.) 

I thought the Washington Examiner article (especially the headline)
misinterprets the findings pretty significantly (at least in its headline,
³AP Exams Barely Improve Odds of College Graduation,²) The report cited
actually reports that students who earn higher scores on AP exams are more
likely to graduate college, and that the number of AP exams taken and
scores earned are significantly correlated with the likelihood that a
student will earn a degree in 4 years or less after entering college.

The authors DO find that there doesn¹t seem to be a lot of benefit (at
least in terms of attending a highly selective college or earning a BA in
4 years or less) for students who earn AP scores of 3 or lower.

Policy and practice takeaways:


Does the study find strong evidence to support pushing students who are at
or below grade level into AP courses as a silver bullet for increasing the
national college graduate rate? No.


Is there strong evidence of the benefit of AP for academically advanced
students? Yes. (So, should gifted advocates continue to support the
availability of AP as an option in a continuum of services for gifted and
advanced students secondary students? Probably.)

TL;DR version: At the macro level, AP seems to be pretty effective at
doing what it was designed to do and to not be particularly effective at
doing what it was not designed to do.



On 5/15/15, 7:45 PM, "Margaret DeLacy via Ohiogift"
<ohiogift at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

>Friends:
>
>Below is a link to and excerpt from a news story on a new study from the
>National Bureau of Economic Research.  The study itself costs $5.00, so I
>haven't consulted it yet.
>
>Margaret
>
>
>Study: AP exams barely improve odds of college graduation
>By Jason Russell | May 11, 2015 | 2:14 pm
>
>Taking Advanced Placement exams as a high school student has a fairly
>small, but significant, effect on helping any given student go on to
>finish college in four years, according to a new working paper published
>by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
>
>The paper also showed that AP exam scores have little effect on what
>colleges students attend. Furthermore, high school juniors who do well on
>AP exams are more likely to take additional AP exams in their senior year.
>
>An AP exam score high enough to earn college credit increases the
>probability of a given student finishing a bachelor's degree within four
>years by one to two percentage points per exam ...
>http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/study-ap-exams-barely-improve-odds-of-co
>llege-graduation/article/2564310
>
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