From a reader:
As a teacher at a highly performing school in an Arizona public school district, I had three students move into my AP classes last January from BASIS. These students appeared soon after the 100 day count, the time when public schools (including BASIS charters) tell the state their student enrollment for funding purposes. Beyond the high attrition rate mentioned in the article and comments, timing should also be questioned by the state auditor and legislature. Why are overwhelmed students disproportionately leaving after the 100th day? This allows BASIS to gain funding for the entire year and excludes these students from their AP and other standardized testing scores.
Secondly, when speaking with staff members from two different BASIS schools, a culture of stress and fear is placed on teachers for not only AP scores but also academic club competitions, which is then passed on to students. Emotional health and life balance of students is a very low priority, according to the staff and students to whom I’ve spoken.
Thirdly, it should not surprise anyone that BASIS test scores are high when they have a policy that requires 6 AP exams for graduation and pay for them only if the student maintains a passing average on them (3 or higher out of 5). Additionally, they require that the AP exams override the entire grade by a chart on p.23 of their handbook. http://basisschools.org/pdf/1516_BASIS_Charter_Handbook.pdf If they have an F average in the course, but score a 5 on the AP exam, they have a B+ on their transcript. Sixty to seventy percent of my students at a comprehensive high school earn 5’s on the AP Psychology exam, so I would think that many BASIS students are able to use this policy to their benefit. Conversely, students who are successful in class, earning an A for the entire year, will receive a C on their transcript if they score a 1 on the AP test.
Personally, I would quit before I let the 2-hour AP exam override 180 days of class participation, debates, projects, analyses, application, and research. I suppose this point bears out the core of the issue. What do we value in our schools – holistic student growth or nationally-ranked test scores?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Balanced, healthy child vs high test scores? Do you even have to ask?
LikeLike
Sigh.
There are plenty of reasons to criticize the BASIS schools. But they are considered to be
“good” precisely because of their emphasis on Advanced Placement courses and tests. Jay Mathews (eye roll) at The Washington Post places three BASIS schools in his Challenge Index top ten best schools in the country. All because of AP.
Mathews ranks BASIS Tucson, for example, as #6 in the nation. But BASIS Tucson is a school that has tight ties to the very conservative Goldwater Institute. It pays “merit bonuses” to teachers for “learning gains,” and pushes the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) courses and tests. It’s corporate-style “reform” on steroids.
Yet, the research on AP courses and tests makes clear that they aren’t what they are cracked up to be.
For example, Klopfenstein and Thomas (2005) found that in college AP students were “…generally no more likely than non-AP students to return to school for a second year or to have higher first semester grades.” Moreover, they write that “close inspection of the [College Board] studies reveals that the existing evidence regarding the benefits of AP experience is questionable,” and “AP courses are not a necessary component of a rigorous curriculum.”
A 2006 MIT faculty report noted “there is ‘a growing body of research’ that students who earn top AP scores and place out of institute introductory courses end up having ‘difficulty’ when taking the next course.” Two years prior, Harvard “conducted a study that found students who are allowed to skip introductory courses because they have passed a supposedly equivalent AP course do worse in subsequent courses than students who took the introductory courses at Harvard” (Seebach, 2004). Dartmouth found, for example, that high scores on AP psychology tests do NOT translate into college readiness for the next-level course.
AP has become “the juggernaut of American high school education,” but “ the research evidence on its value is minimal.” AP may work well for some students, especially those who are already “college-bound to begin with” (Klopfenstein and Thomas, 2010)
As Geiser (2007) notes, “systematic differences in student motivation, academic preparation, family background and high-school quality account for much of the observed difference in college outcomes between AP and non-AP students.” College Board-funded studies do not control well for these student characteristics (even the College Board concedes that “interest and motivation” are keys to “success in any course”). Klopfenstein and Thomas (2010) find that when these demographic characteristics are controlled for, the claims made for AP disappear.
And yet, educators and parents and students cling to AP as though it’s some kind of magical elixir. It’s not.
The College Board (and ACT, Inc) peddles a bunch of products (PSAT, SAT, AP) that are of questionable educational value. They are the nutritional supplements of education. And like nutritional supplements, they’re mostly worthless.
Criticisms of BASIS schools often have merit. But not so much when they come from the inside of an educational glass house.
LikeLike
“Thirdly, it should not surprise anyone that BASIS test scores are high when they have a policy that requires 6 AP exams for graduation and pay for them only if the student maintains a passing average on them (3 or higher out of 5). Additionally, they require that the AP exams override the entire grade by a chart on p.23 of their handbook.”
I think this is a trend that is growing. An administrator from my district gave a presentation that explained in the future, students will pass classes when they show mastery of the subject. The specifically mentioned that homework, classroom participation, lab work, special projects, etc will not count toward the grade. They also gave a crazy example of kids getting extra credit for bringing in school supplies.
I asked if mastery would be proven by a standardized test, but I did not get an answer.
Many parents in the audience were on board. They felt students suffer lower grades because: 1) they may be bored 2) it isn’t fair if some students have a tougher teacher in the same subject as other students.
It is all rather confusing to me.
LikeLike
I’ll guess that a score on a standardized test – like an AP test – would be considered to be “mastery.”
Plus, this nonsense is all considered to be part of the college and workforce “readiness” and “21st century skills” emphasis.
I’ve noted on this blog before that far too many of our educational “leaders” are really just fairly simple-minded followers.
LikeLike
The College Board already offers CLEP exams in a variety of subjects with many colleges accepting the credits. https://clep.collegeboard.org/exam
LikeLike
In my opinion it is a large stretch for students to pile on the AP classes so I guess minimizing the requirement for passing to a standardized test is the practical solution.
When I was in HS, I think there were only three or four AP classes offered. If you wanted to take more than one, you had to get approval. I took none and managed just fine in college. What’s the rush?
LikeLike
The rush is to save money. My nephew finished college in three and a half years due to the AP classes he took. My brother avoided paying for a semester at a pricey college.
LikeLike
That’s exactly what my district is going to this year for math. Only tests/quizzes count for credit, and if the student doesn’t prove “mastery” by these tests, they fail the class. It’s horrifying.
LikeLike
“An administrator from my district gave a presentation that explained in the future, students will pass classes when they show mastery of the subject. The specifically mentioned that homework, classroom participation, lab work, special projects, etc will not count toward the grade.”
This was one of the (many) reasons I chose to retire. That mastery by test bullshit is what VAM/SLO-SGP is all about. I haven’t talked to anyone about grades yet at the school but supposedly this year 75% of the grade was supposed to be from tests scores. If it ain’t on the test it ain’t worth doing/learning about.
And it all points to the larger more fundamental (epistemological and ontological-E&I) problems with the concept of “grading” students. There are no agreed upon standards upon which to base grades (and no X% of points is not a standard). For every teacher there is a different judgement as to the students work and merit so that in effect there are millions of differing ways of assessing a student’s work. There are no “measures” just opinions and no amount of claiming otherwise can negate that fact. No grade is nor can ever be “objective” in the true sense of that word.
But it is so hard to break up an ingrained cultural habitus/practice that almost all can’t see through the “brainwashing” of them by these nefarious practices. Those of us that can see through the insanity that are grades are considered outliers, outlaws of thought and even out and out crazy:
>”What are you going to do without grades?”
>>”Oh, about a billion different other things that aren’t so completely false and misleading to the students and their parents”.
>”But, but, but how are you going to know what the student knows?”
>>”Hell, I don’t know now with grades and I never will. How about we sit down with the student and their work, and the curriculum and discuss with him/her where he/she believes they are in grasping and doing the objectives and maybe we’ll find out a little about what they’ve learned.”
>”But, but, but how will colleges and employers know if they are career and college ready?”
>>”I really don’t give a damn about what the colleges and employers need, as my job as a teacher is to enable, help, cajole and otherwise see to it that the student learns what is in the curriculum. By the way do you know what the purpose of public education is and where to find that information?”
>”Hhhmmmmm?!?! To prepare students to be productive citizens! All the schools and districts have vision and mission statements”
>>”NO!!, Try again!” (ad infinitum)
LikeLike
As a parent, I’d love it if my child’s grades reflected their mastery of the material covered in class – whether based on AP exams, teacher-prepared final exams or major writing assignments. A grade that is based in part on homework completion and in-class participation does not tell me whether she has mastered the material or skills the class was intended to teach. If her behavior is causing a problem for other students, or if neglecting homework appears to be compromising her ability to learn the material, I’d like to be contacted by the teacher. If those problems aren’t occurring, I don’t see how anything other than mastery of the material is relevant. And yes, if my child is taking AP Chemistry, I think her score on that exam should determine her grade.
LikeLike
Does the AP Chemistry exam include a hands-on lab component including bench work and written work based on the data/results/observations the student herself collected from her lab work? If not, that exam is questionable in determining if a student has mastered an entry level college chemistry course.
A student could ace a paper exam and have terrible lab skills. Did they master AP chemistry?
LikeLike
@ retired teacher: Very few students who take AP classes and tests graduate early because of the credits they earned. Very few. For the vast majority of kids, AP classes are all about “looking good” to admissions officers. It’s about getting INTO college, especially the so-called “selective” ones.
LikeLike
@Lynn: there’s more that goes in in a class – any class – including AP, than just a final exam.
LikeLike
Concerned Mom,
A couple of observations.
Several of the teachers at my local high school award extra credit to students for bringing in things like kleenex boxes, so it does not seem crazy to me.
The “rush” is that in many high schools the students run out of courses to take. In any case, students can take AP exams without taking AP classes. My middle son took 9 AP exams during high school but only 3 conventional AP classes and 1 online AP class.
My university allows students to take chemistry without a lab section (they only get three credits for the class), so it does not seem crazy to award college credit for chemistry on the same bases.
LikeLike
TE,
I guess I am a doubter but I find it hard to believe that there are enough HS students in most small-average size districts performing at the AP level to justify a class (unless college standards have dropped significantly in the decades since I attended).
You mentioned in previous posts that students in your district who qualify can take classes at the local college. To me that is a solution because I just don’t believe there are enough students to fill classrooms all over the country. Maybe the smart students can graduate early, because what I see in my district is kids who shouldn’t be in AP classes are encouraged to take them.
It’s interesting that you mention Kleenex, because that was the example given during this presentation (I hope they are clipping those box tops). Maybe it’s a conspiracy by Kimberly Clark? I would like to know why teachers who award extra credit for supplies are not being reprimanded. I would complain if I knew a teacher was giving credit for bringing in supplies. Did you?
As far as a college level chemistry class without a lab, that’s just sad and is an incomplete teaching of chemistry. My bets are it’s due to budget cuts, not because anyone believes labs are necessary for chemistry.
LikeLike
Concerned,
I must have stated my point badly. Given that the median size high school in my state has about 250 students, man high schools offer no advanced classes at all. I have had students lament that their senior year in high school was useless because they had run out of classes. The only hope I see for those students is in online education, which is why I argue against those on here who dismiss that way of delivering classes.
Students can take classes at my local university as a special student if 1) they can find transportation to campus and to the high school, 2) if they do not need the credits to graduate from high school and 3) if the family can afford the tuition charged to a non degree seeking student. My son checked all the boxes and was able to attend university classes while still in high school. A friend of his did not, but did study linear algebra using MIT’s on line course taught by Gilbert Strange. Not a bad way to learn linear algebra, but not as good as being able to afford a live course. Many of the students in my state do not live within a reasonable distance of any state university, so it is not really an option for them.
Giving extra credit for bringing supplies to class is fairly routine in our local high school. Complaining about it would single out my students in the class and potentially make their lives miserable, so they were very quick to urge us not to say anything. I would be interested in any comments that high school teachers might make about this practice and if complaining about it would do any thing other than bring grief on to the student.
Students at my university can get three credit hours of introductory chemistry without taking the lab, five credit hours if they add the lab section. I don’t think it is a budget issue as that has been the structure for at least the last quarter century. I think it is more a concession to the reality that students need to make careful choices. Devoting one third of your credit hours in a semester to chemistry would require a significant investment that people not especially interested in chemistry might be unwilling to make. With the three credit hour lecture, a student is only devoting one fifth of the semester to chemistry, so it is an easier decision to make. I am all in favor of exposing as many students as possible to the natural sciences, so not requiring a lab component does not seem to be a terrible idea. Reasonable people can, of course, differ about this.
LikeLike
correction” ..labs aren’t necessary
LikeLike
Thanks democracy for citing those studies!
LikeLike
my pleasure, Duane.
LikeLike
Maybe we can get to the point where kids can finish high school in kindergarten. That way taxpayers won’t have to pay for all those years of schooling (snark alert!).
LikeLike
good one….
LikeLike
Duane,
I totally agree with your comment at 10:17. Every kind of measurement and assessment we make up to grade students is ARBITRARY. It’s not like it comes from on high. And no student is ready for college, career or LIFE at 18 years old. Heck! I’m 47 and I’m still not ready for a lot of it!
LikeLike
Duane,
I too agree with you. In my opinion, the whole grading process ruins the relationship between a student and teacher. My children are bright and eager to learn. They also have attention and executive function deficits. They will start this new school year excited about what they’ll learn and enjoying their classes and inevitably by October will become anxious, depressed and full of self blame as they internalize their teacher’s judgements of them.
I cannot wait until they are in college.
LikeLike