On my last trip in to campus, I found in my faculty room mailbox the AP Subject Score Roster for Psychology. The aggregated results from my two class periods are below:
5: 26 students
4: 20 students
3: 7 students
2: 3 students
1: 2 students
That’s an 88% pass rate, which is perhaps the lowest it’s been for me in recent years. 45% of students earned a perfect 5; and 79% earned a 4 or a 5. All in all, those are fairly good results for my students, and I’m proud of the work that they did.
Truth be told, the first calculation that I did was finding that 11.8% of my students did not pass. That is what I always concentrate on — I can’t help it. I can’t help being upset with myself for letting those five students not pass the AP test.
Looking at the roster and seeing which specific students didn’t pass, I know that each and every one of them was actually capable of passing the test. I know that they could have done it if they’d wanted to, if they’d read the textbook throughout the year, and I know they could’ve passed if I’d leaned on them more, motivated them more.
I have said for years to new AP teachers that (a) the students that read will pass the test, and (b) our hardest job as teachers is motivating students to do their share of the work — namely, reading the text. Looking at this year’s results, I remain convinced of that twofold assessment.
So, having said that, what do I do in the coming year to motivate students to attend to the material more? How can I get them to learn the vocabulary better, and understand the broad issues of Psychology, and know the findings of major studies? I have to do a better job of motivating all of my students to do the intellectual work of learning. It takes effort that only they can apply — my job is convincing them to actually apply that effort. #sigh