"...On a Jet Plane..."

Destination San Diego, where Dr. Trani and I will be the guests of The College Board at their annual Western Regional Forum on Saturday and Sunday. We'll be giving a talk about overcoming barriers to Advanced Placement courses for all children.

This month The College Board released its State by State analysis of Advanced Placement participation and performance. Corbett was one of two districts in Oregon in which 30% or more of seniors attempted at least one Advanced Placement exam. The key word is attempted. In 196 Oregon school districts, fewer than 30% even attempted such a thing.

Corbett was also one of only two districts wherein 30% or more of graduating seniors passed at least one A.P. exam prior to graduation. The state average is about 13%, so 30% is pretty good. But in Corbett's Class of 2009, 40% of graduating seniors passed three or more exams!

What about that 13% number? If that's how many Oregon students passed one more more exams, what did Corbett's top 13% do? They attempted an average of 10 exams each, and passed 85% of them with a score of 3 or higher! They earned a score of 4 or 5 on 60% of their exams. One was a State AP Scholar (one of two in Oregon) and one was a National Scholar (one of 53 in Oregon). That's what Corbett's top 13% did. How many passed one or more exams? 60%.

If that's the senior class, it was probably just a flash in the pan. What about the junior class, the Class of 2010? What did its top 13% produce? The top nine of 65 juniors passed an average of 5 exams each. They passed 67% of their exams (a little higher than the national average passing rate). They posted 4's or 5's on 38% of their exams. So Corbett's juniors performed far beyond the Oregon norm for seniors.

Could just be another fluke...law of small numbers and all of that. Let's see what the 10th graders did! (We'll find a flaw here. Just wait!) The top 13% of the Corbett 10th grade (Class of 2011) last year attempted 2.6 exams each and passed 48% of them. They passed an average of 1.25 each. And every one of them had at least one score of 4 or 5. In the 10th grade! So with regard to AP productivity, Corbett's 10th grade significantly outdistanced Oregon's Seniors.

So we're going to San Diego to talk about it. Should be fun.

Academic Decathlon Results

Barlow High School earned 1st place at the State Of Oregon Academic Decathlon Finals. They did commendable work and earned the win. Of special note is that the team exists in large part due to the effort of a remarkable student who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. It's a great story. A high school senior demanding that pure academic achievement be given a place at the table.

Corbett School and Corbett Charter School earned 2nd and 3rd places, respectively. Corbett Charter School placed 2nd in the Super Quiz, with Corbett School placing 3rd. There were a number of great individual efforts, but we simply lacked the needed depth to pull out the win.

Corbett School won the right to represent Oregon in the online Small Schools national competition. We will do our best.

Overall, we would have to call this a building year. We took two freshmen to the event (almost unheard of) and the Charter team had no veterans. Barlow had two students who competed last year and seven of their nine members were seniors. They were well poised for a win. And they were well prepared.

I have to add that spending time with the 17 competitors from Corbett School and Corbett Charter School was a wonderful experience. These are among the nicest, brightest young people anywhere. I am deeply grateful to know them, and everyone with whom they came in contact was favorably impressed.

I predict that we will (both) do better next year. Stay tuned. For a year.