Insiders Report on the Challenge Index

When I first started teaching AP Psychology at Spanish River High School back in the early 1990s, I was told by the "experienced" vets that only one class of about 12 to 15 students would be feasible. I started with two classes of 25 each. Doom and gloom were predicted. We did pretty well that year so I expanded the program to three sections. Of course more doom and gloom and actual anger were directed at me. I was making a joke of the AP program. The kids would be hurt. How could I do such a thing? We did even better, so I expanded to five sections. We then hit 90 percent passing. The critics shut up.

For 10 years now I have taught about 135 kids AP Psychology, and I have averaged a passing rate of over 90 percent. In my opinion AP should be available to anyone who has the aptitude and the attitude necessary to be successful in any good class found in any high school in America. I have had students who took no other AP class but mine, and I have had students who took multiple AP classes every year.

AP is the best thing to measure in a high school because it is a real achievement test that marks proficiency at a college-level class.

-- Tom Di Figlio Boca Raton, Fla.

Schools that have magnet programs and IB programs that enable students to transfer away from their home school to the magnet or IB school cause the Challenge Index statistics to be artificially skewed. What happens is that the non-IB and non-magnet schools lose excellent students, which depresses their scores. At the same time, the IB and magnet schools gain students who would have been very likely to participate and succeed in the AP program at their home school.

A good example of the situation that I describe takes place at Richard Montgomery High School, which is the IB school for the central part of Montgomery County. Many of the top-performing students from Magruder High School and other schools that are within about six miles of Richard Montgomery are drawn into the Richard Montgomery IB program. This practice makes the surrounding schools appear to be lesser performers in the Challenge Index calculation and in [Montgomery County Public Schools] statistical reports, even though the surrounding schools are, in reality, often doing just as good of a job educating their students as the IB school.