My favorite resource for college-related news US News has ANOTHER great article - this time on how some high schools are considering dropping the College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) classes.
The reason being given is it "restricts" how teachers can teach. The issue teachers say is they want to put less emphasis on memorization and test preparation and more on "exploration" of the material. This is another example of the conflict between testing to make sure our students have a minimum level of skills versus teaching to pass the exit or other measurement exam!
What complicates things is the AP class is considered as being a "valuable" indicator of the ability of the student to do college-level work compared to taking a traditional/non-AP classes. Because AP classes are taught to a specific "rigorous" college prep level and there is a national test through the College Board (same people who do the SAT), it helps validate a student's college potential compared to other students. This is especially valuable when the college admissions staff does not know much about the high school's reputation.
Most high schools also add a point to the student's classroom grade (e.g., a 3.0 is a 4.0 in an AP class) in recognition of the difficulty of the classes compared to the traditional level classes. This AP bonus can mean a higher overall GPA value for students. The problem in dropping the AP classes is the more elite the college, the more likely other applicants are taking AP classes and that their high school GPA will be over 4.0!
I can agree that "learning" may be different when there is less emphasis on memorization and preparation for passing the AP test. I also agree there is a need to measure the "learning outcome" so we can tell if our children are getting the education they need. So both approaches are right and both are wrong. We need a blend of both!
Again, what do you think? What should we do to measure student preparation versus teaching beyond passing a test?
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