Test Scores Article Gave Partial Picture

* As an advanced placement U. S. history teacher at Taft High School, I would like to comment on your article titled “Advanced Placement Tests” (Nov. 14).

The article, which was mainly a listing of high schools in the San Fernando and Antelope valleys in which the tests are given, contained very little information, and what was there was potentially misleading. You listed the names of schools, the number of exams taken in 1991 and 1993, and the percentage of tests passed at those schools.

Mark Twain comes to mind: “Lies, damn lies and statistics.” Since you didn’t break down the number of specific tests (up to 21) per school, there’s no way to tell which tests are given in which schools. Moreover, you don’t state how many students are taking each test, data that are readily available from the testing service. It is not unusual for a school to have perhaps five students take the AP calculus test. If all five pass, that’s 100% passing. Certain tests, such as U. S. history or French, may have as many as 70 or 80 students with some studying harder than others, taking those tests. Their percentage of passing or not passing would be based on far more students.

It would also have been informative had you given the total enrollment of each high school and to indicate how many students are taking multiple tests per school. Some students take as many as four AP tests a year (more power to them!), so the number of tests taken does not necessarily indicate how many students are involved in the AP program at a particular school. I also believe it was incorrect to give Valley readers only a piece of the pie as far as the Los Angeles Unified School District is concerned. Given current controversies about school breakup, information about how students are doing on AP tests throughout the school district would have been helpful.

In stressing the percentages of those passed, you misread an important point stressed by the University of California system regarding AP classes: Taking the class and demonstrating a willingness to do hard, college-level work is just as important as a passing score. In fact, some colleges do not accept certain AP scores even if they are rated “passing” (a score of 3 or higher).

In sum, I believe your article, though well-intentioned, failed to tell readers much about the AP program, and its focus on schools that took more AP tests than others places an emphasis on quantity without revealing the quality of effort made by individual schools.

ABRAHAM HOFFMAN

Woodland Hills