MCPS Releases MoCo-Fairfax Comparison on AP Tests

MCPS Superintendent Jerry Weast has written a memo to the Board of Education comparing MCPS to Fairfax County Public Schools on Advanced Placement (AP) exam performance in 2009. The results are very close. Weast wrote, "Despite having 30,000 more students than Montgomery County, Fairfax students took just 1,379 more exams. Since 2006, the number of AP exams taken by MCPS students has increased 27.5 percent - nearly double the rate of growth in Fairfax." Weast went on, "While our enrollment is more diverse both racially and economically, MCPS's students had the same mean score on AP exams as Fairfax County - 3.3 out of 5." White and Asian-American students performed better in MoCo than in Fairfax, while Hispanic students performed better in Fairfax than in MoCo and African American students performed equally well in both jurisdictions. We reprint Weast's memo below.