Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics and RSD AP
Posted on July 31, 2013
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Sometimes it’s not just what you say, but what you don’t say that tells the true story as one of my contributors from St Tammany recently pointed out. Recently John White and our local media have been proudly crowing from every tower and tree about how well our students have done on AP (Advanced Placement) tests. White downplays the fact that school districts were incentivized to send as many of their students for AP tests as possible to prevent state takeovers. . .
As an incentive to offer AP coursework, high schools now receive points for every student who takes an AP exam, with the most points for students who score 3, 4 or 5. The results are counted in School Performance Scores, which determines whether charters stay open and whether conventional schools are eligible for a state takeover.
. . .or mentioning that a greater percentage of them failed, John White has declared victory of the slice of data he has chosen to present to the public.
That said, the percentage of students passing the exam dropped from 44 percent to
