The Hillsborough district in Florida pays superintendents a bonus if more students register for AP courses. It doesn’t matter if they pass the exams or get credit, just register.
Here is the result: only 22% passed the Algebra 1 end of course exam. No matter. The superintendent gets a bonus.
This idea that low-performing students will succeed if the bar is raised and raised again is like a coach saying to the runners: all those who could not jump over a 4 foot bar will now be required to jump over a six foot bar.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well intentioned … the road to you know where is paved with good intentions. When a kid in my class said, “That was hard!” I would tell them life is hard … get used to it … work harder … Kids in my AP class signed up so it appeared on their college application … and never took the exam … when I argued that taking the exam should be a requirement for getting a grade the principal pleaded, “Don’t give me a hard time … the superintendent wants kids in AP classes …” I’m no longer a fan of AP classes – an indepth research project is much more useful and the skills attained impact college readiness.
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At one of my previous schools, the carrot that was dangled was exemption from the regular course exam if a student signed up for the AP exam. Lots of kids signed up with no intention of preparing for it and doodled or napped.
I prefer to teach concurrent college enrollment classes arranged with a local university. The students get college credit, but the focus is on the experience of the class rather than on a canned test at the end.
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Boards are desperate for metrics that demonstrate they ave a rigorous curriculum available for students… and this is one that Jay Matthews used several years ago to identify the “outstanding HSs” in the US. He acknowledged its flaws (and may have abandoned it as a measurement) but it persists nonetheless.
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Well of course they will according to the edudeformers’ ideology.
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Rather than ‘harder,’ schools should be looking at adjusting to what interests students. We find that if we get youths or help teachers get students to spend more time focusing on their initial ideas — whether they be for writing, or a science project, or a history paper — and developing those ideas with peers so that they become more interested in the idea, that higher interest, effort and performance follow.
We see a lot of schools where the AP course mantra divides the kids — the “smart” ones and the “not-so-smart” ones — and does not contribute to overall performance.
A final point: The Florida superintendent bonus system is akin to giving CEO’s bonuses for stock performance. What does either have to do with the quality of the product?
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Agree
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wgersen mentioned Jay Matthews.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/
That is Jay Mathew’s “America’s Most Challenging High Schools”. He says it “ranks schools through an index formula that’s a simple ratio: the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year, divided by the number of seniors who graduated that year. A ratio of 1.000 means the school had as many tests as graduates.”
There are some who challenge Jay every time he writes about AP testing in his blog (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle). Jay is a huge proponent of AP testing, and strongly believes all/most kids should take AP tests.
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At one time “advanced” meant those at the head of the pack. Now, it sounds like it means the majority. I honestly don’t understand this idea.
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The highly publicized rankings based on AP tests taken did a lot of harm in my sons’ high school. AP courses used to attract the students who were genuinely ready for college-level work, but about seven years ago, the school system instituted a policy that required every student who took an AP course to take the AP exam, and also began to push students into AP who did not really need to be there. There were parent meetings about AP and IB and the message was sent that if our kids wanted to be high achievers, they would take these classes. Soon, through school system pressure and peer pressure, a two-tiered system developed where the “smart” kids were in AP, and “everyone else” was in regular classes. The school began to make the “Challenging High Schools” list, but the teachers (who are evaluated by students scores on the tests and not just by how many take them) were now under great pressure to keep their scores up. They could not afford to slow down, or to differentiate for students with learning differences, or do much at all for those who were just not ready for the level of difficulty of the AP courses. It was sink or swim, and a lot of kids sank.
My older son was a high achiever and a good tester, so he did fine, although we got a rude shock when he got to college and realized that acceptance of AP scores is varies HIGHLY from university to university and even from school to school within a university. Almost none of his high scores actually allowed him to skip college courses.
My younger son has some learning differences, and AP courses were frustrating and overwhelming for him, while at the same time, his non-AP courses were, as he put it, “filled with slackers”. Fortunately we had a very good counselor who was able to transfer him to classes that were a better fit. He has now graduated, but I hear from friends that the school’s policy for next year is NO TRANSFERS OUT of AP, even if the student is failing. So many kids were bailing on AP that it was messing up class sizes.
I firmly believe that students do better if they are challenged, but AP is not for every student. It is not even for most students.
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In reading instruction, there’s the idea that a book/reading passage is either either “independent,” “instructional,” or “frustrational,” level for a child to read. If a text is “independent,” then a child can read it on their own. If it’s “instructional,” a child can read it with some assistance (learning the vocab & special decoding of certain words). If it’s “frustrational,” then it’s too hard, the child will becomes frustrated and give up. This concept can be applied to ALL SUBJECTS!!! And NOT just to kids… it applies to adults as well!!!! Guess some folks gotta learn the hard way.
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Exactly. It’s based on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and anyone who has studied education, i.e., child development, learning and teaching, knows that one must gear lessons towards students’ ZPD, aka instructional level, as well as plan learning experiences that are meaningful to students, capitalize on and expand their interests and build on prior knowledge. But corporate “reformers” claim that people don’t need to know anything about education to teach, so they think that just raising the bar higher and higher is going to make students sprout wings and fly.
That’s the optimist in me. The pessimist thinks they really want to see students fall flat on their faces, so they can verify to the public their shock doctrine, failing schools narrative, shutter schools, privatize education and then rake in the BIG bucks.
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You’re right on target, Hannah. Lately professional development sessions have been peppered with admonitions that CCSS means we need to “expose” students to more difficult texts. Apparently, even those with disabilities related to reading will be just fine when we give them a chance by “exposing” them to the advanced level texts that teachers have kept from them. Notice how this language demonstrates an appalling failure to understand disabilities. It also feeds into the false narrative that students’ reading difficulties are the fault of teachers who have low expectations for their students.
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Putting students in classes for which they do not have the foundational skills and no interest or motivation just to meet school needs for percentages isn’t the same thing as having high standards for all. They are being set up to fail.
On the other hand, in middle school LA classes or elementary school, where those foundations are being taught, if the standard is lower for some kids than others (and it is assumed that support is offered if students are way below grade level to start) they will not strive and will not learn what they need to, nor will they develop the study habits they would need to pass the high school AP class.
I saw this over and over again in many different forms. Currently in many schools teachers give three levels of tests in their regular LA classes. One that is really easy, one that is medium, and one that is hard. They have been taught that this is good—this kind of differentiation is good—because it meets the students where they are.
I had a student who went to one of the other teachers on my team and asked why she was being discriminated against by being given an easier test than some of the other kids in the class. She was a smart girl but had not performed well in the past, so this teacher gave her an easier test (hoping to have better data no doubt). The teacher told her she was not discriminating, but giving her a test “that she could do.” In fact, the student could do the work, she just hadn’t ( and she knew this, which is why she confronted the teacher). She was right about being discriminated against and at a young age kids won’t always choose the path they know is best for them.
I think the crucial point is not to lower your standards until you have some kind of proof—sound proof—that the child really can’t perform. Of course if you have that, to ask them to do it anyway is like asking me to be a rocket scientist—just silly.
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Maybe I’m misunderstanding something here, but why is it okay for a student to “confront” a teacher about being “discriminated against” when the student deliberately gave a false impression of her abilities?
You may call this girl “smart,” but manipulative is more like it.
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I would guess that it is a rare individual who is aware of his or her own potential–especially if that individual is under stressed conditions or has been pigeon-holed into a less that optimal spot by authority or more powerful figures.
How a student actually performs is frequently not a good indication of how well they can perform, especially in middle school where they are distracted by many other things, which is developmentally normal.
A teacher, like any other professional, should first do no harm. Lowering expectations without a sound understanding of a child’s potential is doing great harm to that child.
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Some students do better in classes that are more difficult, some less well.
Are there no students in Hillsborough that can jump over a six foot bar? Are none allowed to try?
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Obviously there are students who can and did jump over a six foot bar. 22% passed the end of year Algebra 1 exam. “Some students do better in classes that are more difficult, some less well.” I know you see something wrong in enrolling unprepared students in AP classes merely for bragging rights.
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I definitely agree that students should not be enrolled in classes they are not prepared to take. There is an interesting question of how to decide what class a student is prepared to take, however.
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It’s not that difficult to figure out that a kid who is struggling with basic Arithmetic is probably going to have a hard time with Algebra. It sounds like you distrust K12 educators.
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The problem is that teachers have totally lost their voices… Outside of this amazing blog, how much press does this sort of thing get? How much? None… That is sad.
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By the way, … This blog is an amazing resource for teachers… Agree? This blog should be read by all educators… Agree? This blog is a healthy, rich conversation dedicated to the love of the student… Agree? …This blog is blocked by the School District of Hillsborough County (Tampa) … of course it is…
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David Coleman sounds like he wants everyone to take the AP test, too.
How does the goal of increased numbers of students taking AP courses and AP tests, without concern for who is actually ready to learn and be tested on that content –or even whether or not students pass– mean anything more than increased revenues for the fuzzy “non-profit” College Board? (fuzzy “non-profit” as in all the other “non-profits” today that are raking in the big bucks, like TFA, KIPP, UNO etc.)
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Just as we cannot all be expected to run a sub 4 minute mile, not all students are ever, or will they ever, be able to reach the same “academic bar” after the same amount of class time. Differentiating (moveable) goals help students succeed. As they make strides forward, the teacher should move the bar. It’s that simple. One size doesn’t fit all. Politicians don’t understand this. Administrators don’t remember this. I use this “moving bar” strategy in my classes, including in my AP class. Are students in AP that don’t necessarily belong for a variety of reasons? Of course. But, most of those students want to learn and do learn something in my AP course and improve. And that’s why they are there, and why I am there. I am not a fan of the AP program or exam (what a racket). In Spanish- I think it’s not a super great measure of skill, and potentially turns some kids off to the language. Many to most college juniors and seniors wouldn’t pass it. I don’t care if my kids don’t take the exam. The students can stay in my class IF they contribute and remain there to learn & improve. With that said, I have seen some of my students who struggled with a concept, showing that they had not “mastered” it in May of their junior year, only to return to my AP class in the fall understanding the concept. They had the summer for the learning to “simmer”.
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Our district allows students to take AP Courses if they want. Most are in history or social studies of some sort. They do not have to take the test – they do have to pay for the course and if they don’t take the test they will not get the weighted grade that students do who take the test. We applaud their desire to take the harder course and feel the exposure to the AP criteria can only be a positive if they chose to take post secondary courses.
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