Latest AP Exam Scores Show Improvement For All Tri-Valley High Schools
High schools are increasingly being evaluated by the success of their Advanced Placement (AP) programs. The AP program is a series of college-level courses offered to high school students. If students score high enough on the AP Exam for the course, they can receive college credit from most universities. AP Exams are graded on a scale of 1 to 5. While a score of 3 is considered passing, some elite universities like Cornell University will only award college credit if students score a 4 or higher on the AP Exams.
Based on the latest data available for Tri-Valley high schools from the California Department of Education, the AP exam programs for all Tri-Valley schools have shown improvement for the 2008-2009 school year; however, AP programs in Pleasanton, Danville, and San Ramon have significantly outperformed those in Dublin and Livermore. This observation is consistent with the trend in API scores for Tri-Valley high schools.
One measure of an AP program’s strength is to compare the percentage of 4s and 5s relative to the number of exams taken. Using this measure, the top three schools from 2005-2009 were Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton (67%), Monte Vista High School in Danville (67%), and Foothill High School in Pleasanton (60%). The bottom three schools were Livermore High School (27%), Dublin High School (36%), and Granada High School (46%). Livermore High did make a significant improvement in 2008-2009 by increasing their percentage of 4s and 5s to 36% as compared to 22% in the previous year.
Another way to assess the strength of a high school’s AP program is to look at the number of AP Exams with scores of 4 or 5 for every 100 students in the 11th and 12th grade. Using this measure, the top three high schools in the Tri-Valley from 2005-2009 were Amador Valley High School (70) in Pleasanton, Foothill High School (63) in Pleasanton, and San Ramon Valley High School in Danville (44). Both Pleasanton schools managed to post significantly improved results on top of their already strong 2007-2008 scores. The bottom three schools were Livermore High School (11), Granada High School (16) in Livermore, and Dublin High School (17).
Please visit http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/about.html for more information about the AP program.
8:04 AM on July 8th, 2010
Perhaps Cornell was a bad example. Anyone who goes there will find it perhaps the most miserable experience of their lives. Horrible teaching staff, the worst weather imaginable, overpriced tuition, the meanest students to be found anywhere, and all this in a hick-filled, inbred infested “town” (if you can call it that) that makes Livermore look like metropolis. And who can forget their annual Slope Day, a tradition in which thousands of minors are openly drinking gallons of liquor on campus, while the police stand by, watch, and do nothing about it because the college condones it and encourages it.
Oh, and unless you look for a job in the East Coast, having Cornell on your resume means zilch. Almost every employer I’ve spoken with, and this is the mighty Silicon Valley, has either never heard of Cornell or isn’t aware of its reputation. Meanwhile, grads from party schools like Chico will get just the same jobs as Cornellians would. Save your money.
Sorry John, didn’t mean to step over your post. Replace “Cornell” with a real school like “MIT” and you’ll be fine.
11:58 AM on July 8th, 2010
Comparing Chico State to Cornell? Really?
Why so much hatred for an Ivy League university? Let me guess…you didn’t get in and instead went to Chico State. If so, don’t be putting down a world-renown university; blame yourself.
1:25 PM on July 8th, 2010
You guessed incorrectly. Try again.
9:17 PM on July 8th, 2010
Too much credit for him. Chico is a decent school. For such an ignorant comment, he probably didn’t graduate from high school.
10:16 PM on July 8th, 2010
Gosh…grow up people…this forum is becoming ridiculous. Arguing over Cornell and Chico…yawn.
10:36 PM on July 8th, 2010
Chico is a “decent” school? Never heard of.
6:45 AM on July 9th, 2010
Wrong again. Anyone with a brain cell could read my original comment and conclude that I actually went to Cornell. How else would I be able to say all those things about that school, unless I went there?
I majored in their College of Engineering program in the late 90s. In the height of the dot-com boom, I came back home to the Bay Area and found out that no one cared about Cornell or even heard about it. These were hiring managers at companies that are pillars of our society today. Back then, they were hiring people from Chico in the same spots they’d be hiring people from schools like Cornell and MIT. If this sounds nuts to you, then you must not have been around during the dot com bubble, because these stories are common.
By the way, all my friends from Cornell, who are geniuses, will tell you the same opinion of that overrated school that I did. You can say I’m disgruntled or crazy or whatever, but did you go there? No. We did, so we know how it’s really like over there in “sunny” Ithaca, NY. Keep hyping up your AP scores and your Ivy League schools, but any research of who is really successful in life will show you that is requires skills and talents that no university can ever teach you. It’s all a big scam and you’re all falling for it because you “want the best for your children.”
11:31 AM on July 9th, 2010
In those crazy dot.com days, even cats would get phone calls from head hunters for job opportunities. This actually happened to the cat of one of my friends. You just cannot use those days as “normal” examples. Besides, on east coast (including Wall Street), Cornell is much more well known and respected.
Let’s stop all these silly arguments about Cornell vs Chico. This is my last comment on this topic.
11:42 AM on July 9th, 2010
It is true that no matter what school you go to it is still mainly up to the individual to shape his or her destiny.
However, the university you go to does open up doors for you and open your eyes to things that you might not have known (either through the friends or professors you meet).
So to generalize that going to a tier-1 school is overrated and just “a scam” is just plain dumb. Why even go to college…it is all up to the individual, right?
There are a lot of folks who went to Cornell, are doing well, and loved the experience. Obviously there are some that didn’t. But to generalize and say that it is useless to go to Cornell or an MIT or any Ivy League school is one of the dumbest things I’ve heard.
Perhaps you didn’t do well after college because you sucked at interviewing, your grades where crappy, you didn’t look like you could handle the job, you have a crappy attitude, etc… many possible reasons.
Don’t blame the school, blame yourself. There are plenty of people who went to Cornell and leveraged the opportunities to do well for themselves. Just don’t generalize your own failures and discourage others who are probably more savvy in taking advantage of new opportunities.
10:40 PM on July 8th, 2010
I bet you are one of those who could get to Cornell and only deserved to go to trashy school like Chico.
3:21 PM on July 8th, 2010
I am quite surprised to see Granada High in Livermore is even better than DHS. Come on, Dublin residents, we have a lot of work to do. I do not want DHS to be the lowest-ranked one in Tri-Valley.
3:41 PM on July 8th, 2010
A good video about charter school:
3:45 PM on July 8th, 2010
http://blip.tv/play/g9UzgeyoGgI%2Em4v
Do not know how to post video directly here.
5:58 PM on July 8th, 2010
Hmmm…. I migrated to the U.S. 20 years ago. Even in the tropical country across the Pacific where I came from, I have heard of Cornell and never of Chico until last summer. I had to look it up to find out what and where Chico was.
Can’t compare Cornell with Chico in any aspect. Anybody in the world can tell you that.
9:30 AM on July 9th, 2010
come on everyone knows chico is known for its pot.
2:18 PM on July 9th, 2010
What’s the big deal if you pass an AP exam or not. Who care about the caliber of the AP class. You just want to take the AP class to boost your GPA. That’s what get you into a college. Getting an A in an AP class will give you 5 points instead of 4. That’s what’s important. You want an easy A, not a hard earned B just to pass the AP exam.
11:21 AM on September 22nd, 2010
There are very good economic reasons to passing AP exams. You can literally save at least 1 semester if not more of college tuition, books and fees. That’s not chump change.
5:08 PM on September 22nd, 2010
Honestly, the best economic value is to not take an AP class and just take the class at a JC. You’ll get transferable college credit. It’s a lot easier than the AP class and the AP exam. Don’t take English AP in high school. Take English 1A in JC. The caliber of the students in JC are a lot lower. It’s an easier A.
12:24 PM on July 13th, 2010
Why is Dougherty High left off the list?
4:25 PM on July 13th, 2010
It is too new to be ranked. No data is available. I am sure DHS will be knocked down by one more notch if it is included.
12:54 AM on August 7th, 2010
I hear Dave Duffield recruits heavily from his alma mater. Is he not the founder of several companies that were/are “pillars of our society?”