AP grade inflation?

AP courses are a staple in the preparation for college, but a recent study questions whether they really boost grades and ability the way students and parents expect they will. According to the survey, those AP classes may not be all they’re cracked up to be.

Conducted by researchers at Harvard and the University of Virginia, the study shows students who scored 5 on a scale of 1 to 5 on the AP science exams earned a grade of 90 percent in introductory science courses. This is lower than the A-level college work the College Board says students can expect with an AP score that high. Those who scored 4 averaged an 87, and those who did not take an AP course at all came in at 82.

Many students who score well on AP exams skip the corresponding college class altogether, making the system a popular way to earn credit without spending tuition dollars. But these researchers suggest that may not be such a good idea. Some professors agree, saying students miss out on important material when they substitute high school (AP) courses for college-level science. They see students struggle with material supposedly mastered during secondary school.

Others, most notably the College Board that administers AP tests, say the survey sample is too small to accurately reflect reality (among the 18,000 surveyed, 1,000 took AP courses and only 500 took AP exams). The board, has, however, recommended that high schools review their course content to ensure it meets AP standards.

The study comes on the heels of another indicating a surge in AP test-taking. In February, the College Board reported that 23 percent of high school graduates took AP exams in 2005, up from 15.9 percent in 2000. The catch: Scores dropped. In 2000, 64.3 percent of graduating seniors who took the tests scored at least 3, the minimum indicating mastery of a subject. In 2005, that number dropped to 62.1 percent.

The word about the benefits of AP courses is getting out. The Washington Post reports that 1 million high school students took the tests last May, twice as many as the previous year.

A study of 140 eighth-graders found that the degree to which students practiced self-discipline in the fall was twice as likely to predict final grades, admission to more selective high schools, attendance, hours spent doing homework, hours spent watching television and the time of day students began homework. “These findings suggest a major reason for students falling short of their intellectual potential: their failure to exercise self-discipline,” wrote the study’s authors, Angela L. Duckworth and Martin E.P. Seligman of the Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania.

Self-discipline was measured through a student survey about doing or saying things impulsively, a parent and teacher survey rating the students’ impulsive or self-controlled behavior, and a delayed reward test asking students either to choose an immediate, smaller reward or wait for a larger one. The students, surveyed in two separate groups of eighth-graders, came from a socio-economically and ethnically diverse school in an undisclosed Northeast U.S. city.

“Underachievement among American youth is often blamed on inadequate teachers, boring textbooks and large class sizes,” the authors conclude. “We suggest another reason for students falling short of their intellectual potential: their failure to exercise self-discipline.” The authors suggest that “programs that build self-discipline may be the royal road to building academic achievement.”

The research was written up in the journal of the American Psychological Society, Psychological Science, Vol. 16, Number 12.