1st Year English Teacher Freaks Out After Discovering 'Only' 78.6% of his Students Passed the AP Literature Exam: 'AP Lit had a pass rate of 73% this year. Why are you upset you did better than the global average?'

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Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Jul 10, 2026 12:30 PM EDT

He is being way too hard on himself.

Teachers have a difficult job for a multitude of reasons, one of which is that they are viewed as an extension of their students. If their students don't care and do a bad job on their work, that must mean their teacher doesn't care and does a bad job on hers, right? Wrong. You could put the best teacher in the world in a classroom of lazy, disrespectful students, and she couldn't get them to be the best that they can be. She could try her best, but most teachers are not like the teacher in Freedom Writers. 

Because parents and administrators alike see students as an extension of their teachers, they view students' failures as their teachers' failures. It's hard for them to accept that teachers can't totally control how well their students do on a standardized test, no matter how well they prepare them. As a teacher, it's not advisable to be a perfectionist with your students. If you get angry at every little mistake and internalize it as your own, you're going to make your students afraid to fail at anything, and therefore, they will be afraid to try. 

The teacher in this story is a first-year teacher, and his worldview definitely reflects his lack of experience with the profession. 

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A stressed, young high school teacher who considers himself a failure, even though most of his students passed the AP Literature Exam he prepared them for.
via Vitaly Gariev

A stressed, young high school teacher who considers himself a failure, even though most of his students passed the AP Literature Exam he prepared them for. 

The man in this photo is a model, not the real person behind this story.

My AP Literature class had a 78.6% pass rate, and I am absolutely devastated that more of them didn't pass.

I'm so sad. My colleague had 10 more students take the test and 84% pass rate. The biggest difference was that he has all day seniors and I had morning students. I had 28 take the test. Not one score of a 5. I feel like
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resigning. I've been teaching for 10 years and I've never felt such total failure. I'm so ashamed. I know people at school will gossip. I truly feel sick.
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NervousEmotion 1099 I guess I've been teaching SpEd too long, but an almost 80% pass rate seems good to me.
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A special education teacher, who has different expectations for her students than an English teacher who specializes in advanced students, works with one of her special education students.
via Andrej Lišakov (Unsplash+)

A special education teacher, who has different expectations for her students than an English teacher who specializes in advanced students, works with one of her special education students. 

The photo uses models to depict situations. 

Dobber16 Tbh if this is referring to the AP test as well, that's such a good pass rate for AP Lit I think. Her coworker having an 80+% pass rate is even more wild
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srush32 National average is about 75% - 78 isn't bad, 80+ is good It's also real volatile with under 30 students - the difference between those two pass rates is like one student
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Zamiel Exactly. A few kids are sick during the test and it screws up the numbers pretty quick. I had multiple students complaining about the constant coughing and sniffling during the test breaking their concentration. It's just something that can happen. You can also happen to go over the exact content that is on the FRQs which skews the numbers up. I scored this summer so I saw the prompt that my students could have got and I went over all the content the day before with my classes.
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Dacder It really depends on context too. A suburban district that pass rate would be mediocre, urban title 1 and it's amazing
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neenerneener_fayce Your lobster does seem too buttery and your steak is too juicy.
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A group of students at an affluent private high school discusses their coursework between classes.
via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

A group of students at an affluent private high school discusses their coursework between classes. 

The image is a representation of this scenario. It does not depict real students, but rather, actors. 

Check-mark OP Your comment made me laugh. You don't know how much better these comments make me feel. I have no one to talk to about this and the other teacher I work with for lit is such a know it all. Plus, my department loves to gossip.
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LeftStatistician7989 I think it is important to remember that the tests are not testing you, the students take them. You had different students than your colleagues, but many of them likely passed some of your colleagues classes to get to you. In addition, the subject you teach implies pre college readiness and most high school graduates are no longer college ready. The students in your course likely entered less prepared than the year before and it's been trending that way. Do you have any data
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VisibleGuava 7780 It sounds like you're at a high performing school. As someone who's taught at the literal last ranked school in the state, and one of the top ranked school in the state, I can't tell you how many times I wanted to tell my colleagues at my high performing school to, kindly, touch grass :) You're doing great, OP.
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summerbreeze2027 I know, right? I think as a society we are finally moving away from that, but there were too many years after NCLB was passed when Title 1 teachers were actively blamed for our students' test results. We were obviously bad teachers in need of fixing. rolls eyes
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jamesbrown1929 I say this with compassion. You need to talk to a therapist. This job isn't easy and you will make it too hard on yourself if you continue like this.
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Possible_Category_69 I've been teaching AP Government and Politics for years now. Here is the deal: my first years were not great and now 98 percent of my students get a 3 or better. Keep at it, go to an AP seminar and you will see improvement. Right now you have a N of 1 which is too small of a sample to judge yourself. Don't beat yourself up about this.
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dluke96 You might be teaching for years but the first time you teach a subject will not be your best. It is okay. Comparison is the thief of joy.
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nikkidarling83 AP Lit had a pass rate of 73% this year. Why are you upset you did better than the global average? Also, how long has your coworker been teaching AP Lit? I say this gently as a fellow AP teacher, you're internalizing your scores too much. Be proud of your students and yourself.
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5PeeBeejay5 1. If 2 more of yours had passed you'd have "beaten" your colleague, that's not some yawning gulf between you 2. Their scores are theirs. SO MUCH is out of your control; you should be feeling good about the ones you helped 3. It's rare I'm surprised when I look through the list of kids who didn't make it. (And this year is no different) Anyone who thinks merely existing in an AP class is going to earn them a pass often are disappointed, and that sh attitude is way too prevalent. The
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FabianJanowski Humiliating. My apush pass rate was 99% plus I'm handsome and 6ft tall.
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