Peter Greene calls attention to a new federal grant program of $28.4 million, to pay for low-income students to take Advanced Placement courses. AP courses are a source of revenue for the College Board, whose president is David Coleman, architect of the Common Core.
Greene writes:
“I will remind everyone, as I always do, that the College Board (home of the AP test and the SATs) is not a philanthropic organization, administering these tests as some sort of public service. They are a business, one of several similar ones, selling a product. This program is the equivalent of the feds saying, “Students really need to be able to drive a Ford to school, so we we’re going to finance the purchase of Fords for some students.”
“What does the College Board get out of this program?
“Huge product placement. David Coleman’s College Board has been working hard to market the AP test as the go-to proof that a student is on the college path. Some states (PA is one) give extra points to school evaluation scores based on the number of AP courses offered. The new PSAT will become an AP-recommendation generator. This program is one more tap-tap-tap in the drumbeat that if you want to go to college, you must hit the AP. The program can also be directed toward IB tests or “other approved advanced placement tests,” but it’s the AP brand that is on the marquee.
“The product placement represents a savvy marketing end run. The AP biz has previously depended on the kindness of colleges to push their product. But colleges and universities weren’t really working all that hard to market the College Board’s product for them. Now, with the help of state and federal governments and their own PSAT test, the College Board is marketing directly to parents and students, tapping into that same must-go-to-college gut-level terror that makes the SAT test the must-take test.
“$28.4 million.
“What do low-income students get out of this?
“A chance to take an AP test. Not, mind you, more resources to get ready for it, nor do they get help with actually going to a college after taking the test (which may or may not give them any help once they get in).
“These grants eliminate some of the financial roadblocks for low-income students taking Advanced Placement courses, letting them take tests with the potential of earning college credit while in high school,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.”
So it’s not help to prepare for the tests, no guarantee of earning college credit in high school, just a chance to take a test that you may not be prepared for. And a nice addition to the College Board’s bottom line. Let us not forget that Coleman got his start at McKinsey. He is a businessman, not an educator. And the College Board’s relationship with the DOE is good business.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So, I completely understand the concern around the business connections that are mentioned here and I agree that the grant should be used to expand support for AP…however, I am not sure why it’s a bad thing to pay for a test…many districts (including DC) offer the tests to their students for free…If getting $100 (or so for each test) ends up saving a student at least $1,500 in college tuition, isn’t this a good thing?
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The “if” is the rub. But even in the event that there is a benefit for the student, why would the DOE not cut a deal with the College Board that involved savings to the taxpayers? The DOE has provided some hefty product placement for the College Board folks, and they have paid the College Board full retail price for the privilege.
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Peter – you mention having DOE cut a deal with College Board? And yet others have talked about how DOE has too much influence in such ways…I would think that the “cutting a deal” part would be states or school, right?
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Peter, as you know if you have ever graded the AP, there are lots of whole folders that are O’s or 1’s. The College Board gets paid, that is all that matters.
Another question to examine is to what extent has the College Board become a subsidiary of Pearson Education?
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In Florida one of the ways schools were graded was based on the number of kids in AP classes, not the number who passed, oh and if you were in an AP class in Jacksonville (I can’t speak for the state) you were required to take the test whether you wanted to or were ready or not.
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At my high school we have seen the PSAT AP recommendation predictor. I estimate that it was at least 60% wrong. It regularly predicted that our school’s top math students were not to be recommended for AP Calculus. I have taught many of these students and I have taught AP Calculus. The results were widely laughed at amongst the staff that saw the report. In spite of this the admin is moving full speed ahead to give the PSAT to ALL sophomores this year using the AP predictor ruse to help justify it.
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Ok, not sure where to begin…lots of different comments already..
I guess I’ll stat at the ending…pilgrim – this post didn’t discuss PSAT or SAT…it sounds as if you had a poor experience with any or all of the exams. But personally I think that saying they are fueled by propaganda may go a bit too far…My guess (only a guess from your short comment) is that you may feel that such classes prevent creativity, etc. I can see that point, but not sure to say avoid them as the plague.
In your other post you state, “AP classes are just additional punishment and are totally unnecessary and too often create burn out and eliminate meaningful activities” = what about the students (many of them probably from middle/upper middle class families, but some from other less fortunate situations) where success on AP exams led to lots of savings on tuition in college? Personally you would probably think that I was overly punished as I did both the AP and the IB program in high school (yes, my last two weeks in May of my senior year, existing some days of an AP test in the morning followed by an IB test in the afternoon were not fun at all)…But I do believe that this helped prepare me for the rigor of attending my undergrad institution (one that is in the top 10 in the US news rankings)…
Many here have written about the bad about AP for all programs… Ellen noted, “Pushing AP classes that students are not prepared for, instead of taking the “regular” course is not for their benefit. The number of students who take AP, regardless of the exam scores, makes the school/district look good”
I would agree here with Ellen and with others that ranking schools by the number of AP tests they offer is ridiculous. I live in the DC area so Jay Mathews is a local columnist for me, so I get to hear every year about how the school that offers the most IB and AP tests is the best in the area or the best in the nation…
That being said, I do think that there is some value for students who take an AP class, take the test (paid for or not) and don’t pass it. When I taught AP Calculus, the highest that score a student received was a 2 on the test. I will never forget the following year when a student of mine called me out of the blue from college. He started off talking about Calculus…and I was thinking that he may have needed help for his classes. Instead he thanked me, saying that his teacher wanted to know who he had had for HS since he was so prepared for the calculus class. There is some merit to having students take the course even if they don’t pass the test.
As for the PSAT predicting AP…I would agree with many of you on this…I think that it COULD discover students that you may not normally consider to be AP students (someone who is bored in courses and thus gets low grades, but the PSAT demonstrates there potential)…but it should not be used as the ONLY data point (as many do)…Using it as the only data point assumes that all students are taking it seriously (which I know that I didn’t, even in my junior year where potential scholarships were tied to the score)…
But let me bring this back to the original post – Greene was writing about a grant from the US Dept of Ed to support students taking AP tests…I guess many of you could argue that such funds should be going to other things (other programs, other resources, etc) and not to helping pay for students to take exams…As ellen noted, it is a Catch 22, and represents the tangled web of what we call education…Why not recognize some good in this as opposed to simply bashing Duncan and others and assuming the worst?
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jls…the third paragraph of the above post specifically mentions the PSAT as an AP recommendation generator. Did you read it?
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Jlsteach – my youngest daughter in her senior year in HS took an AP Government class which I thought was an excellent course. It was definitely worthwhile, even though she only got a one on the exam. The goal was never college credit. It just was a fantastic teacher making the idea of governing come alive and be relevant in the students’ lives.
On the other hand, AP Calc can be mind blowing for other reasons. Taken as an intro to calc for advanced students, I can see how this would be extremely helpful when the college class begins in ernest. My high school offered pre calc and analytic geometry which were the topics of the first two classes in my Calc 101 class. After that I was on my own. If I was one of your students, I, too, would have thanked my lucky stars (your teaching) to be prepared for the onslaught.
So, yes, AP, has it’s place. It’s just knowing that the ultimate goal might not be college credit. And all students should be given those options, not based on affordability.
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Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Pushing AP classes that students are not prepared for, instead of taking the “regular” course is not for their benefit. The number of students who take AP, regardless of the exam scores, makes the school/district look good.
Teaching AP courses is a difficult/time consuming effort for both teacher and student. I applaud this endeavor, but not when it is used willy nilly as a profit making tool. AP should be taken by the students who will benefit – not for the benefit of the owners of the test. And not everyone has the ability to take college level coursework in high school. Otherwise, why bother – just start college after middle school is completed.
So, here is the dilemma – a catch 22 – If the tests are considered important for entry into college, then ALL students need to be given the opportunity, not just those who can afford to take the exam. In that case, someone needs to be the equalizer.
Here we are again. It’s the entire system which is in need of default. The problems we discover are all intertwined. Once we start unraveling we find another knot to overcome. And at the center of the web are a few “winners”, collecting the spoils from the victims caught in their trap. I’m out – retired and looking at this mess, but my grand daughter is just starting to transverse this course and the outcome does not look good from my vantage point.
Help!
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Ellen… I love your comment “AP should be taken by the students who will benefit – not for the benefit of the owners of the test.”
That’s it in a nutshell!
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Don’t think of it as a hand-off … think of it as Arne feathering his future nest …
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Colleges and universities have placed too much emphasis on test scores, and that has fueled the testing obsession that has become pervasive all the way down to kindergarten. The focus on SAT Tests, as well as AP Classes is silly and ridiculous and a waste of time and money. 50% of college students in Texas drop out and never complete a degree. Most of those college drop outs were good test takers because taking tests is all that Texas schools do now, since testing has replaced teaching.
Neither SAT, ACT, or the number of AP classes in high school can predict a student’s future college or career success. AP classes are just additional punishment and are totally unnecessary and too often create burn out and eliminate meaningful activities.
A student’s social and emotional development is a better indicator of their success in college and career. However, no one making school policy understands how to create a learning environment that provides for children’s social and emotional development; therefore, that which is most necessary is neglected.
We need to get away from the unrealistic need to have children tested to death, either in kindergarten or high school. A healthy learning environment should protect children from corporate intrusion. Instead, education policy is adding on more punishment.
When does this insanity stop and people will finally say “Back Off”! Leave the children alone. Give them a healthy place to grow and Get Out of their Way!
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I’ve told my son to take the regular classes and enjoy school. It is better to get an “A” in a regular class than working hard for a “B” or “C” in AP class. Yes, he may not get in to a high-end college, but the best education I received was at at Mira Costa community college before transferring to University of California at San Diego.
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You are a smart parent!
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That was my approach as a high school student. On the other hand, I didn’t enjoy school. And I didn’t get As. But I definitely did not work hard, so mission accomplished!
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My two older daughters opted for the Bs in high school (getting the A was more work and not guaranteed) without any AP classes. The both graduated from SUNY at Buffalo and have good (professional) jobs.
So there is life without AP.
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Momoffive, you are indeed wise.
It is unfortunate that some schools are dropping regular and honors classes and forcing kids into AP. Their thinking is that a student who sits through an AP class and gets a D or lower is better off than he/she would be by taking a different class and having a good learning experience.
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Arne Duncan is trying to make up for his own deficits with unrealistic demands on children. Isn’t that the style of most bullies?
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Ken,
YES, he is…re: both your statements. He’d make a good case study.
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The system of education in the US has become Orwellian. Negative is considered positive. Down is Up. Schools are destroying the spirit of children. They are ruining the future of our society and creating a mean race of Nazi robots. All the while we, the helpless masses, are standing around like sheep.
Arne Duncan and other false leaders like him need to be charged with child abuse. In the mean time, parents need to have their children OPT OUT of all standardized testing, AP Classes, SAT and ACT. Break the back of corporate intrusion into education.
Like everything else in the US, college has become a scam!
Consider sending your children to public junior colleges. (Avoid starting at the competitive four year colleges that require SAT, just you would avoid the “for profit” private “rip off” technical schools”.
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PSAT, SAT, and AP classes are fueled by propaganda (emotional contagion) and ignorance!
Avoid them like the plague. Actually they are an academic plague. Kick them out of our education system, along with CCSS.
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Totally agree, pilgrim.
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Take a look at this website for the National Math and Science Initiative. All the usual blah-blah-blah about the need for more STEM grads and how our financial crisis is tied to failing to prepare our students to be “college ready”is to be found here. The sponsors are the usual suspects: Bill and Melinda and Exxon Mobile. The NMSI was begun by Tom Luce, under a different name, Just 4 the Kids. He served in G. W. Bush’s cabinet as an under secretary of education. Failing to win the governor’s race in Texas, he was inspired to form “two nonprofit ventures that led public schools across the United States to measure performance based on standardized tests.”
https://www.nms.org/
When the Massachusetts version of NMSI was imported to Boston, the Boston Teachers Union took the matter to arbitration (which the BTU won) because it was being used as a means to introduce merit pay. The testimony given by MMSI at the arbitration was the usual spin, not enough STEM graduates, yadda yadda – made up statistics. But they are supported by folks with deep pockets and political connections like Mass Insight, turn-around specialist:
“Why Schools Fail
These schools fail because the challenges they face are substantial; because they themselves are dysfunctional; and because the system of which they are a part is not responsive to the needs of the high-poverty student populations they tend to serve. The school model our society provides to urban, high-poverty, highly diverse student populations facing 21st century skill expectations is largely the same as that used throughout American public education, a model unchanged from its origins in the early 20th century. This highly challenged student demographic requires something significantly different—particularly at the high school level.
Turnaround: A New Response
Standards, testing, and accountability enable us, for the first time, to identify with conviction our most chronically under-performing schools. Turnaround is the emerging response to an entirely new dynamic in public education: the threat of closure for underperformance. Dramatic change requires urgency and an atmosphere of crisis. The indefensibly poor performance records at these schools—compared to achievement outcomes at model schools serving similar student populations—should ignite exactly the public, policymaker, and professional outrage needed to justify dramatic action.”
and
“The School Turnaround Group
In 2009, a window opened that could not be ignored. The Turnaround Challenge was widely declared the foremost resource on school turnaround. At the same time, President Obama had come to office and brought on former Chicago Public Schools superintendent, Arne Duncan, on board as Secretary Education. Together, they declared that ‘we need everyone who cares about public education to take on the toughest assignment of all–and get in the business of turning around our lowest-performing schools.’ Mass Insight was ready to respond.
The School Turnaround Group (STG) was created as a division of Mass Insight Education with the mission of bringing the principles of The Turnaround Challenge to practice.”
http://www.massinsight.org/
Can’t get much more rheeformy. As Ellen T. Klock posted above, all “It’s the entire system which is in need of default. The problems we discover are all intertwined. Once we start unraveling we find another knot to overcome. “
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Completely baffled by the utter stupidity of this. If they want low income students to be able to take AP exams why not just use their federal free and reduced lunch status for students to qualify for free AP or SAT exams and then give the money directly to the College Board to cover the cost of the exams based on how many take them. Why funnel it through the states?
On a different note, I’ve noticed at my daughter’s high school there is a lot of pressure to take AP courses. So much pressure, that the school placed my 10th grader in AP US History without asking her or her guidance counselor first. She and her guidance counselor had to go through various people to get it off her schedule. AP courses mean there are fewer non-AP electives. . .with the school next door to Harvard, students also have the option of taking classes there which are probably a bit better than the AP versions?
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Sarah – First of all, I would agree with you about the pressure to take AP courses – I think that it is ridiculous that any student would be placed into an AP without asking the guidance counselor, the student or the parent first…I also think that you have an idea about having students who qualify for free or reduced meals getting discounted or free tests…I do know that some students can apply for vouchers for the SAT or even AP tests through the College Board…but I think part of the issue is there are limited numbers of vouchers available….
If everyone looks at the amounts, they are not that much in terms of money (most states received under $500,000)…states appear to have had to apply for the grants.
BTW, my point about the SAT/PSAT not being involved wasn’t about the post…it is about the grant itself…
Many of you (pilgrim) amongst others seem to be taking personal experiences with AP courses and then extrapolating there negatives…no one has mentioned that completing AP courses does provide college credit and potentially save students money…
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At the school I taught at, the AP Global, AP US History and AP Writing classes were the only choices for that subject. No General Ed. The teachers complained that too many of the students were lost – that AP was not appropriate for them.
And you must get at least a three for college credit. Sometimes a four or five is needed. Plus, unless it is a class for their distribution, a student might need to retake coursework if it is required for their major.
Again, why force children to take college level courses in their high school years – sometimes as Freshmen or Sophomores. Being college ready at fourteen seems like a stretch. Or are we striving for burnt out.
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Wow, lots to respond to..
First, Ellen – I agree with you that only offering AP for certain subjects is NOT the path that I think is ideal…I am not a fan of AP for ALL in terms of the only class is an AP option. I think that schools do this in order to boost AP numbers to look better on rankings like Jay Mathews’ Best School ranking…in some cases, I don’t think every student in these classes takes the test…
Christine – it sounds as if you had a really good experience with your AP Spanish class, and I commend and applaud your efforts. But I am not sure why it couldn’t continue…You write “AP courses used to be controlled by the schools and the teachers who taught them. If you had a group of talented kids who the administration felt were good candidates for a given AP class, and a teacher willing to teach it, the class went on the schedule. The teacher found materials that seemed suitable and went at it. In May, kids took the exam and got their scores a few weeks later”
While this may be true in your case, there are/were plenty of other examples where a class is labeled AP but is not really AP material…So, students have transcripts that say they took AP…colleges see those transcripts, admit the students based on a certain standard, and then the students struggle…So, AP decided to try the Audit system with the syllabi..
If you look at it more carefully, the audit is more of a symbolic policy than anything else. There is no way the College Board can monitor every single AP class…And there is nothing that keeps one teacher from simply cutting or pasting someone else’s syllabi from the previous year (when I left the classroom having taught AP calculus, I sent my approved syllabus to the teacher who replaced me to make things easier for that person)…I honestly don’t think that turning in the syllabus is that much of a burden – it should not have changed what you were doing.
But back to your post…really, are we going to nit pick every single thing that a teacher is asked to do and “not be paid for”…It took me 30 min-hour to get my syllabus together and submit it…
You also say that the teacher had to be certified and take workshops with her own money…This may be a policy in your district, but I checked the College Board site and while the workshops are highly suggested, they are not required. So a teacher can teach AP without attending any of the workshops…Would attending a workshop help someone better prepare their students for the test? Depends on the quality of the workshop – I attended one (paid for by PD funds from my school) that was fabulous…The free one offered by the district – I left that after an hour…
you mention the test redesign as well…could it actually be that the College Board is redesigning a test in order to make it better…as opposed to simply wanting to make more money?
To teachereconomist point about having students take exams…yes, this is possible…I do think that it has to be the right situation (see my points above on why the College Board began to require the audit)…In HS, I was in the IB program…but for every IB course I was in, I took the equivalent AP course (mainly because IB was not as recognized for credit as other places – but that is another story)
Finally, Christine, you mention the following: “Yes, this was what was so infuriating and is a hallmark of CCSS. The teachers used to be able to decide what the kids needed and design instruction to provide it for them. The AP classes were a collaboration between grown-ups and kids on a challenging and rewarding but not overwhelming task.”
If all of the teachers were doing what you were doing with your AP Spanish students, then we would probably be in good shape…but the fact is that they all are not…
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Jlsteach-
Just to clarify, I was not the AP teacher. My colleague who taught the class was a tremendously capable and dedicated teacher. For several years, at a different school, she had each year taught an AP prep class to a small group of capable kids WITHIN her regular Spanish classes – while simultaneously conducting classes for non-native Spanish speakers. And she had great success.
“If you look at it more carefully, the audit is more of a symbolic policy than anything else. There is no way the College Board can monitor every single AP class…And there is nothing that keeps one teacher from simply cutting or pasting someone else’s syllabi from the previous year…” Except honesty and valuing your reputation and that of the school you represent and your students.
At my school, we routinely had a teaching load of five daily classes, about 150 students, and several preps – maybe 2 Spanish 1 classes, 2 Spanish 3’s and then AP. That’s a huge workload, done properly, so it’s not a small thing to add burdensome requirements like workshops and certifications on one’s own time and money.
I think that the questionably labeled AP classes are a result of AP madness, not the cause. And, since the colleges can ask the student for the AP scores, it should be possible to discern which are false.
It comes back to, for me, a question of agency for the teacher. I believe the person in the classroom is best qualified to determine what her students need, and should be free of monitoring from an outside entity whose goal is to make money, even though it is incorporated as a non-profit.
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Christine, you say, “I believe the person in the classroom is best qualified to determine what her students need, and should be free of monitoring from an outside entity whose goal is to make money, even though it is incorporated as a non-profit”
Here is what I would say to that – if everyone was like the teacher that you described, then yes…the teacher would be the best person in the classroom. The problem is not, everyone is like that teacher.
I have raised this before, and was told that I focused too much on bad teachers…but I will raise it again…Put yourself into the College Board’s shoes – they hear that some courses that are being labeled as AP really are not AP caliber…what would you do???
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The College Board is looking to protect and market its brand. This is new. It used to be that the test results of the kids were for the kids. Without ranking and stacking why would it matter what a class is labeled?
CCSS isn’t all that different. Not much of a surprise given the cross fertilization of David Coleman and his coterie.
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Why does it have to be about brand protection? Could any of it be about the kids – not having kids think they are taking “AP level” courses when in reality they aren’t? Someone (possibly you Christine) mentioned that 2/3 of the kids may not know about AP courses, etc…which could mean that they wouldn’t know what should be involved in an AP course.
I am not saying that AP may not be protecting their brand as you say, but could there be other motivations at all? Is it one side or another???
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Honestly, I’m not interested in the College Board’s motivation except inasmuch as the monetization impacts the de-professionalization of teaching. Teachers are getting squeezed out of decision making in education.
If a class is labeled AP, that is the work of the school administration. The teacher gets the class with the students who are registered and teaches it. When websites like Zillow are posting school ratings on real estate pages, perhaps some head honchos in school districts want more AP classes listed at their high schools?
Ranking and stacking has pernicious effects.
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Christine – I completely agree with you about the rankings…I think that ranking schools by AP scores (or any test scores in general) can be horrible…
That said I looked at the advisory boards for different content areas on the College Board site. Here is the one for world languages:
https://www.collegeboard.org/about/governance/councils-advisory/languages
Note that half of the committee consists of classroom teachers…I would guess such a committee would impact things like test changes, etc…
so to say that teacher voices are included.
Second, I would disagree that such a move impacts the de-professionalization of teaching,,,in fact, one could argue that having standards helps professionalize a profession…Yes, I completely agree that teacher voice should not be left out…but currently (or before trying to have things like the audit) teaching or AP standards were all over the place…which lacks a feeling of professionalization…
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Sarah5565,
I also live in a college town where students do take some classes at the university while in high school. There are, however, several drawbacks of taking those classes instead of AP classes. In my district university classes taken as a high school student do not count towards high school graduation, students taking university classes have to pay tuition and fees to take those classes, and finally colleges and universities are generally much more accepting of giving credit for AP than they are in giving transfer credit from incoming freshman.
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TE – do I remember you are in Michigan? It would help if your state had a long like the Post Secondary Options law in Minnesota. This law allows high school students to take courses on college campuses and count them toward high school graduation. Moreover, state funds follow students so that high school students don’t have to pay the tuition, books and lab fees.
This has encouraged many schools to offer more college level courses in high schools. We’re seeing many youngsters who did not think they were capable of excelling in such courses, do well. Some of them are depicted in 90 second videos, here
http://centerforschoolchange.org/2014/02/alternative-school-students-speak-out-on-dual-credit/
Incidentally, all three of the students in these videos are district public schools.
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Joe,
I agree that such laws would be useful.
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It’s marketing, pure and simple. High schools are now being rated based on the number of AP classes offered and the number (or perhaps the percentage) of students enrolled in AP classes. Whether or not the kids succeed in getting a high enough score for a passing grade or academic credit at a given university does not factor into the equation. Maybe your daughter’s school is chasing rank?
My oldest daughter graduated high school in 2005, and her quite elite college accepted her AP scores for credit, allowing her to complete her BA in three years, saving a full year’s tuition in the process. But she was (still is) a driven student. When her younger sister was a high school senior four years later, the same colleges were no longer accepting AP courses as a proxy for college level work. I was told by more than one admissions officers that the credential had been “devalued”.
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There’s more money to be had than just the fee for the AP exams.
AP courses used to be controlled by the schools and the teachers who taught them. If you had a group of talented kids who the administration felt were good candidates for a given AP class, and a teacher willing to teach it, the class went on the schedule. The teacher found materials that seemed suitable and went at it. In May, kids took the exam and got their scores a few weeks later.
This was the case at my school (89% minority, 80% low SES) for a long time. We had a large number of students who were Spanish speakers (not ELL kids, though) and we designed a sequence of classes for them. In part, our goal was to raise our students’ confidence and to help them to see that being bilingual was not a deficit, but an advantage, as well as to give them some way to distinguish their college applications. The first two years we developed their reading and writing skills using literature in Spanish as well as U.S., Latin American and Iberian history, sometimes collaborating with our colleagues in the social studies department and paralleling the kinds of writing assignments given in their ELA classes. In the third year, we offered AP Spanish. Of the more than 175 kids who went through the sequence, all had a passing score, the majority of them 4’s or 5’s. We were able to develop a reputation among certain quite choosy colleges that our kids were well prepared, so more of our students got accepted, with good financial aid, to those schools. It was good for everyone.
Then, the College Board changed course. The AP teacher had to submit a syllabus, written on her own time, and a curriculum which had to be approved. Of course, she wasn’t paid for this. Then she had to be certified by attending workshops, which she also had to pay for. Next, the exam was redesigned. Then, there was a proliferation of workbooks, texts, and CD’s for use in the class, and then licenses required for software for student use, all with the imprimatur of the College Board.
About this time, the MMSI folks that I posted about above began their program in the school. Their agenda was STEM, so the World Language teachers weren’t affected in the same way. Our colleagues however, were inundated with consultants, Saturday workshops, additional time requirements. Those not teaching AP classes were directed to focus on “vertical alignment” to the AP exams, even though some were teaching middle school students. New texts and classroom materials were purchased for Math, Sciences and ELA mainly to teach towards the tests. There was a disproportional redirection of scarce resources for the AP classes. The size of the AP classes also ballooned because the district didn’t give us any more staff which could have kept the numbers low.
Some students certainly benefited, but the most talented kids still came out on top anyway. The new normal began to be to take 3 or 4 AP classes a year. Some of the kids who weren’t in AP classes felt like failures.
The College Board cashed in, though.
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Christine,
Students can take AP exams without taking any courses, so it seems to me that approval of a curriculum and attending workshops is pretty optional.
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TE – a teacher needs a special certification to teach an AP class. AP courses are a lot of extra work for the teacher (for the same pay). And, while students can challenge the exam, it is the rare child who has the ability plus the wherewithal to be successful.
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TE, your comment has left me thinking.
a) Our students had little notion of how to go about even applying to college. Perhaps 2/3 of them were immigrants, few of their parents had attended college, many of whom did not have even a secondary education in their home countries. Just PSAT’s were a new concept. Few of our kids would have had any idea that they could have taken an AP exam without coursework, and few would have succeeded. (Think Jaime Escalante’s class in “Stand and Deliver”.)
b) It could be that it was the district which insisted on the workshops and an approved curriculum. The person who had been superintendent at that time did go directly to work for Mass Insight when he retired, after introducing the AP madness into our school, which had the demographics the program was after, as well as others in the district. ¿Quid pro quo?
c) Perhaps the AP for All idea was a dry run for CCSS. Billy Gates wasn’t involved yet, because he was still working on dissecting our comprehensive high schools, increasing by a factor of 3 or 4 the number of administrative personnel needed, limiting curricular offerings, and forcing several “small” schools with differing rules and mission statements to co-habitate. That experiment had yet to be declared a failure. But maybe he got wind of a standardized curricular framework whose success could be measured with a metric and saw a marketplace opportunity.
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Ellen and Christine,
I am not suggesting that students take the exam without coursework, just that students take the exam without coursework label as “AP” if labeling the class “AP” requires satisfying the College Board’s pointless requirements and attending pointless workshops.
You could simply teach a challenging US history class and let students know that they can take an outside exam and earn college credit for the class. No special certification needed, no required extra work.
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TE – That’s a good hypothetical. What about the kids who are assigned to that challenging non-AP labeled class which is over their heads? Do they just all fare poorly?
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Christine,
It seems to me that your concern was that the College Board was insisting on useless supervision of AP classes. My suggestion is to not change anything that your doing about assigning students to classes, just take the AP label off the class to avoid the useless supervision and requirements of the College Board and have the students take the AP test anyway.
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Christine – your story rings true. I’ve seen it happen in my school district.
Once again, a worthwhile program has been twisted into something unrecognizable, all for the sake of money and prestige, not for the good of the average student.
Parents, this is no longer the AP of our generation. We need to realign our thinking.
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Yes, this was what was so infuriating and is a hallmark of CCSS. The teachers used to be able to decide what the kids needed and design instruction to provide it for them. The AP classes were a collaboration between grown-ups and kids on a challenging and rewarding but not overwhelming task.
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In other words, Christine, a worthwhile and meaningful education. Something we can no longer guarantee.
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I teach AP, and I score AP exams. I’ve defended the program on Diane’s blog before, but I’m having a very hard time now. I’ve seen essays written by students who clearly had no business taking the exam, but we’re able to because of this funding. Those scores skew the rest – many students who receive 3s do so because of the preponderance of lower scores. In my opinion, the overall quality of the essays has declined over the past five years.
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Jeff, is it this funding that is leading more students to take the exams, or rather the overall “AP for ALL” movement that many have discussed here that is leading to the increase in the number of poorly written essays? I find your comment about skewing the scores interesting…isn’t AP graded on a rubric…where you either have the necessary items or you don’t? Or are you saying that the lower quality lowers the bar on what a “3” is? I am confused by that comment..
No matter, I would argue that funding such as this is not the main cause in the increase in the poor essays, I would agree with many that have posted here that an AP for All attitude does more harm than good, that the PSAT should not be the only predictor of students in an AP class…At the same time, I do see value in having students take AP course and I do see value in a grant such as this…if it’s doing what it could and should be doing – providing opportunities for students who want to do something (i.e. take an AP exam) but may otherwise not be able to do so…
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Thanks, Jeff. Not surprising.
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I think the AP courses have a pernicious effect on high school curriculums.
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Perhaps the solution is to have students take the exams without taking the classes.
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