[SchoolMatters] College-level courses in Albemarle County

[Brian Wheeler]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This message is not an official communication of the Albemarle County School
Board. It is a private, e-mail-only newsletter written by Brian Wheeler,
At-Large Member of the Albemarle County School Board. 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Want to share some public comments on this message?  See the weblog version
here:
http://schoolmatters.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/03/collegelevel_co.html ]
 
I just listened to a podcast of last weekend's candidate forum for the City
of Charlottesville's first-ever school board elections.  In the discussions,
a candidate in the City provided some information on college-level
coursework in their division. See: http://www.cvillepodcast.com/?p=236

The candidate stated the following about Charlottesville City schools: 

"We have more AP courses than any school in the area, public or private. In
1989, we had 13 AP courses with 55 students.  And 75% of those received a 3
or higher [grade on AP exam].  In 2005, we have 20 AP subjects and 142
students taking, so that's about 3 times as many students [Note: that is
about 3% of students enrolled in City].  And our pass rate for college
credit is 88%, compared to the state's of 61%. We now have five
dual-enrollment courses with Piedmont [Virginia Community College]."

Many good facts about Charlottesville City Schools can be found on their
website http://www.ccs.k12.va.us/CCS_facts.html.  

In this case, I called the candidate today and we had a good conversation
about how Albemarle's numbers had improved in recent years with respect to
college-level courses.  Thus, with this posting I want to share the latest
information on Albemarle County Public Schools so that the public is aware
of our current offerings and performance measurements.

*	Albemarle County has 22 AP courses offered at our high schools for
2006-07 (actual offerings will depend on enrollment next year) 

*	Albemarle County has 13 dual-enrollment courses with PVCC for
2006-07 (actual offerings will depend on enrollment next year) 

*	During 2004-05, Albemarle County had 1,539 students participating in
AP courses (about 12.5% of our population) and 71% of the students taking an
AP exam received a grade of 3 or higher, the level for which most students
can receive college credit (this down from 84% in 1999-2000, but back then
we had only 788 students taking AP courses, or about 6.5% of our
population).  

The Albemarle County School Board received a report on this data at our
February 9, 2006 meeting and the item can be found on our website here: 
http://schoolcenter.k12albemarle.org/education/components/docmgr/default.php
?sectiondetailid=14831
<http://schoolcenter.k12albemarle.org/education/components/docmgr/default.ph
p?sectiondetailid=14831&fileitem=5153&catfilter=456>
&fileitem=5153&catfilter=456

Nothing against my colleagues in the City, I just want everyone to know how
much progress Albemarle County has made in recent years in the area of
challenging our students with college-level coursework. 

Brian Wheeler

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Brian Wheeler
 <mailto:bwheeler at albemarlematters.com> bwheeler at albemarlematters.com
 <http://www.wheeleronboard.com/> http://www.wheeleronboard.com
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