Comments about ‘Utah students ranked 10th in nation for AP exams’

"There are three kinds of lies; lies, damned lies and statistics." --Mark Twain

Funny how every few weeks we see a story about how bad Utah's schools are, then later we see one about how good they are. These studies and reports can be skewed to produce pretty much any result you want.

You need to look at the criteria used for the reports. One of the major criteria often used is "spending per pupil." Utah does spend less per pupil than most other states. However, when you look at other criteria, test scores, AP results, etc. Utah schools usually perform very well. We moved from Davis District to Chicago last summer. Our property tax rate here is FIVE times what it was in Davis county, with the majority of that going to the school district. And that didn't include the outrageous registration fees. There are things I like better about the schools here (more emphasis on writing) and things I don't like as much (less access to technology). Overall I would say my children are getting an equal education here, although my 8th grader is academically ahead of most of his peers in this area and was average in Davis County. Be grateful for the absolutely excellent value of education available in Utah.

Re: DeltaFoxtrot

The point is teachers and students in Utah do their best with what they have. It's a testament to those who want to succeed and those who want to see students succeed that they have learned how to work for what they want. It does not speak to the job government has doen to ty to defund education or criticize teachers.

I have been in many states. They are always saying, we're among the lowest in something, and in need of extra funding.-- Wow! Texas ranks in the bottom ten in pay and test scores. Need more funding for new programs and pay.

This article is evidence that Utah is doing fine with it's large class size and low teachers pay. I can agree to higher pay, but most other ideas are a waste.

All this article says is that those students that choose to take AP exams are doing well- good for those students and those schools but as noted that is a function of how many take them and 18,000 taking is not much of a percentage in the total Utah education population- again celebrate those that do- my daughter took 4 last yr and passed all with a 4 or higher and will take 5 this year- great but I moved her here from Illinois and yes my property tax was considerablly higher there but she had 4 hrs of homework there every night- here- none and still maitains a 4.0 (must be better teachers here that can teach her all she needs to know in class and she retains it) with as noted 5 AP courses this year- please do not assume that AP courses tell us how healthy the overall system in Utah is doing- it is one nice and bright measure but one amongst many- some good and others not so good- so lets not focus on one thing that supports our cause rather lets look at the health of the entire system and do it empirically and then lets talk

There is a possibility here of some distortion in the statistics while not comparing apples to oranges, there may be some comparison between oranges and mandarins. Depending on who and how many and process within each state takes AP test exams, the actual numbers by vary. The best example is that some states or large school districts may have most or many of its students take the AP exam in which case there would likely be a significantly lower percentage of those students passing. But the statistics for Utah look promising and suggestive that Utah is providing an quality education to a significant number of students, though again it's important to wonder about private versus public school students as well as taking into account socio-economic differences between states (higher number of poor students and ethnic students in others states).

Whaaaaaat? How can this be? Our education system is broken and our teachers are overpaid! The teachers don't know what they are doing! We need more charters and more vouchers! Just ask our legislature!

Once again our teachers and students prove the naysayers wrong.

Way to go!

You don't get a bigger bang for you buck than here in Utah.

We have ridiculously low taxes compared to other states and our teachers work with low pay, super crowded classrooms, and very little respect (which disgusts me), yet we continue to produce these great results.

My hat is off to all teachers and to all the great students that are putting forth the effort to get something out of their education.

Now if we could just get the legislature on board!

If a student starts in 8th grade, passing 10 AP exams by graduation is not that hard. Some of the AP tests are easy. The student does not have to attend an AP class to sit for the AP test. If your child is diligent or can easily memorize, 2 AP exams each year is possible using only books and online resources. The pass rate of each AP exam is also available online.

Great work to the students and teachers working hard for success.

I'm confused, though, about the article. Why is Nebo happy? They weren't specifically mentioned as having any great rates. And was it Green River or Bear River that succeeded?

AP tests are a great way to move ahead towards a college degree....sometimes. I found that some AP tests were useless (such as the AP Art portfolio) because the college I attended required me to take their basic classes anyway. A better alternative is concurrent or dual enrollment, where the students earn college credit while still in high school. My sister-in-law graduated from high school with an AA. Another useful tool was the CLEP test, which allows students to test out of freshman courses such as English.

Re: Johnny Triumph

From the article:
"In addition to the state's ranking, the College Board named Nebo and Davis school districts to the AP Honor Roll for increasing student participation and performance for three consecutive years."

That should clear that up. :)