Speaking of Advanced Placement courses:

The Washington Post recently cited a study on AP/IB course work that indicates many schools, included many in Texas, suffer a sort of "course title inflation". Any math at all is "Pre Calculus" or any Spanish work at any grade level is "College Spanish". Quoting the article:

" ... 60 percent of low-income students, 65 percent of African American students and 57 percent of Hispanic students who had received course credit for geometry or algebra 2 in Texas failed a state exam covering material from geometry and algebra 1. ... a math professor at California State University in Los Angeles, examined an AP calculus class in a Pasadena, Calif., high school. All 23 students ... got As and Bs from their teacher, but their grades on the AP exam were the college equivalent of 21 Fs and two Ds. "

It would be terribly interesting to compare the grades of our top students -- or even just Grade Point Average as evidenced by honor role placement -- with the names of those who take AP course work generating those grades and the names of those who actually pass the AP tests.

This would help the district match resources to needs. Maybe AP courses are what we need. Maybe not. Maybe we need more, small classrooms for AP work. Maybe not.

How can we tell if the district keeps the data secret?