AP score statistics for 2010 for the entire USA are on a spreadsheet here: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/exgrd_sum/2010.html The spreadsheet includes breakdowns by race, gender, public school attendance, etc.

By the way, the mean score for all students was 2.84 I.e., the mean score was NOT passing, but about 58% of grades were passing grades.

Also, please note that the mean scores very widely from test to test, from 2.44 (Human Geography) to 4.61 (Chinese Language). For classes taken by a large number of students (more than 100,000), the scores run from 2.52 (World History) to Spanish (3.39)

Because that’s what’s going on here in Oakland. We all know the private school types “Ken & Barbie, etc” can take care of themselves. It’s Otis, Tyrone & Latifa I’m worried about.

I’m not pretending the black Oakland population is ever going to match the white Oakland population in school academic performance. (No, you can’t “educate” your way out of different aptitude) I do contend that the OUSD’s approach to “education” is directly responsible for worse stats and worse behavior than if OUSD dissolved and the students sent to any charter that would have them.

It seems to me that OUSD is allowing the black students (that includes the “students” who drop out) to sink as low as they can – this in the face of the coming Mexican majority.

The alternative is to triage, track and train the population so that you do get the best performance from the various levels of student aptitude you have to work with, from basic & vocational level to college prep. That might involve making students good and uncomfortable – flunking, transferring, disciplining, expelling as needed. You might have to keep everybody in fear all the time – kind of like McGeorge Law School – so in the end you have a diverse student population that actually is competitive. There is no reason why the non-academic students should not be competitive in McDonald’s work (retail sales), Hotel Maiding, basic technical work, bus driving (or any kind of driving and delivery work, and all the service jobs that are quickly taken by immigrants and their families. OUSD should prepare students for this (at least in deportment, basic literacy and fund of knowledge to pass the hiring screens, as well as AP classwork for the favored fewer.

We talk here about the AP students – most of the black students are nowhere near an AP class. What is OUSD doing for black (or any other) students who demonstrate no interest in academics? Where’s the Vocational Ed? Occupational training or even occupational placement? Are these kids not worth some attention – as the AP kids are?

To truly capture the level of Oakland’s students, the level of education of Private School students should somehow be taken into account.

At Skyline that year, the pass rate was higher — 43 percent. Of the 667 exams taken, 289 received scores of 3 or higher.

http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/SAT/AP-3b.asp?cYear=2008-09&cSelect=0161259–OAKLAND%5EUNIFIED&cChoice=AP3b&S=1

And there is some good news coming out of the “bad news” about the AP Testing. Skyline’s student journalists on The Oracle staff got the scoop!

The East Bay white population clearly has always been better able to deal with change and to protect their own social and economic interests. Maybe I’m saying they are now no longer as dependent on the public schools, at least the Oakland Public Schools, as they might have been prior to 1950.

And by “white” I’m not talking about the Blue Bloods transplanted from back east either, I’m talking about the Irish, Italians, eastern Europeans and even the Jewish immigrants and their first generation children (I am old enough to remember poor Jewish immigrants.)

These whites who went from factory jobs or less in the east bay of 1960 and now are in Danville. I don’t have memories of any poor white sharecroppers transplanted to Oakland in 1960, I think they stopped in the Central Valley and have their own set of problems in the current generation.

My point is that OUSD is all about the Negroes for a little bit longer until they are going to be all about the Mexican Indians – Like Los Angeles Unified.

Either way the schools are expected to train each boatload that lands on these shores in how to make it in America, Parents or no. I think we can do it if we actually cared enough about the students to do so. As in caring enough to secure the testing as we mention in this thread.

That’s a rhetorical statement. I’m not a teacher. I just don’t agree that there is anything special about this point in history compared to the Great Depression with the accompanying immigrant waves, or WWII. I say OUSD can get control of the black or brown kids if they decided this PC nonsense is out – and triage, tracking and training is in.