Me vs. The Bobcat (10 Of ?)
Nov 18 06 | 12:38 am
Or, “High School Course Level Reconfiguring: A Modest Proposal”
While I have moved on to college, I like to stay current with how things are going at my alma mater, South Windsor High School (and I must note, their recent production of Guys & Dolls was the best musical I have seen them put on yet). I was reading an article in the JI, and I was worried to see that the number of students taking AP courses has declined. Kathleen Daugherty was concerned too, and “added that every student should be allowed to take AP classes, since all colleges look for them, and that the traditional system of recommending students to take the classes limits the learning opportunities for those not selected.”
I couldn’t agree with her more. With the number of students taking these advanced level classes plummeting, we need to do everything we can to encourage students to achieve. Not being recommended by a selection process designed to determine which students are capable of handling the heavy workload and fast paced courses should not stop a student in their quest to go to college.
The number one concern I have heard from others about this idea is that gifted students in this high level classes will be “held back” by the addition of more students to the class. This is silly. These advanced students are self-motivated and learn on their own; they won’t suffer from a lack of one on one time with teachers. For instance, the ease with which students can skip ahead and enroll in advanced classes is so unbelievable that it is essentially a rubber stamp process. And with the tremendous encouragement of science fair projects and other extracurricular learning, there is no reason to be afraid of gifted students being held back. In fact, since the gifted program was scaled back five years ago, acceptance rates for South Windsor students in Ivy League schools have remained constant.
This suggestion to not ‘limit learning opportunities’ is so exciting that we should roll it out to the rest of the school. I played trumpet in 9th grade, but since I wasn’t amazingly good, I was only in the level three band. Maybe if I had been in honors band I would have practiced and succeeded, but the selection process limited my opportunities. Also, since the primary focus is to increase the attractiveness of our graduates to selective colleges and universities, why not extend this initiative to our athletic programs as well? The most competitive colleges look for athletes in their admissions process, and sports-based scholarships are one of the best ways to help put yourself through college. Even with a selection process like tryouts, how can you tell someone isn’t a good quarterback until you give them a chance in a real game? This idea can be applied to many areas.
To even further improve our students college prospects, we should eliminate standard level classes at the high school. Compared to Honors and AP courses, standard level classes only limit students opportunities. Now, some colleges might be concerned than that the standards of the Honors classes would be lowered and that it would all just balance out. To allay this fear, we can simply rename “Honors” classes to be “Advanced Honors” classes, to reflect the caliber of material taught. Everyone will benefit from this new, more rigorous educational system.
Finally, South Windsor Public Schools has an opportunity to live up to its motto of “Educating all children to their full potential.” By knocking down these artificial limits to student’s learning opportunities and giving everyone an equal chance, who knows how these young students will lead us into the future?
Dear Greg,
You are wonderful.
Yours, Jessi
Comment by spiraloflife — Nov 18 06 | 2:10 pm
From what I’ve seen, Ivy league colleges discriminate based on the caliber of high schools. Dartmouth accepted 20 kids from Stuyvesant this year, and most of my friends here went to top private schools. How do they determine which high schools are good? I think one of the major factors is AP enrollment.
When I first got to college, I was intimidated by the number of kids who had numerous AP credits. Some had more AP credits than SWHS even offers. Over half of the kids in my hall have placed out of Calc AB and Calc BC. Very few people have not placed out of Calc AB (I can think of only a couple).
Having been here a while, I don’t think that AP credit is always indicative of ability. There are probably a dozen kids from SWHS who would fit in here just fine academically. But since SWHS does not offer many AP courses, the colleges see it as a run of the mill public school. As a result, they lock out many of the smart and motivated students who attended public high schools.
I don’t think SWHS is a bad school (even though people here laugh at me when I describe our AP system). I got a quality education there and I think many of the teachers are wonderful. But the administration at SWHS is not doing enough to get its students into top schools (for one thing, it keeps suspending them). I definitely feel that if students had the opportunities to take more advanced classes they would have much better college prospects.
Here is a list of AP classes that I would have taken if they were offered at SWHS:
Economics (maybe micro and macro)
Psychology (in fact, the only reason I didn’t take psych in high school is because it was level 3)
Physics C
Comp Sci
Comment by cobalt — Nov 18 06 | 2:16 pm
Colby, I agree with a lot of what you have said. I remember talking to a girl (she is at Dartmouth now, her name is Kerry Rosenblum) I met at the Hartt school who attended Hall High and she mentioned something about their school not offering Honors classes, but just college prep and AP. That is very interesting to me, because it makes me wonder if the courses were as challenging if they were filled with more than just the ‘most motivated’ students. Anyway, that’s just something to discuss because I think Hall has a reuptation for being a ‘better’ high school that snends their students to more Ivies than South Windsor does.
And Greg…this is the first time I disagree with some of your points in a ‘me vs. the bobcat’ post. You argue that making AP classes available to more students would not hinder the progress of the ’smarter’ kids’ because these students have enough self-motivation to learn on their own. But then, you argue that if you had been in the level 4 band class you would have maybe stuck with it for longer. I do not see how you could be any less motivated to practice and be good at the trumpet by being in the lower level band. If the performance of the group was frustrating to you, how is that any different than sitting in AP calc and being frustrated by the progress of your peers? Furthermore, to place students who have not yet achieved the necessary playing ability on their instrument in the high level band class, we would be putting the progress of the class as a whole at a disadvantage. This is not the same as placing lower level students in an AP class where the smarter students do not rely on the progress of other students in order to succeed. In band, or in sports, everyone must rely on each other, so I believe placement is necessary.
Comment by Mike — Nov 19 06 | 2:58 pm
Actually Mike, I am worried that you agree with any of my points.
Comment by civman2 — Nov 19 06 | 4:42 pm
hold on, what’s wrong with killing babies? They’re delicious. And mike, yes I know carrie.
Comment by cobalt — Nov 20 06 | 2:26 pm
Having spoken to several people, I would like to clarify my position here. I think that it is wonderful if people want to push themselves as far as they can, and I think everyone opportunity for that should be given. If the school system can find some way to add something that is above AP, a lot of issues would be solved. When you are already in the most advanced class, your opportunities in the classroom are limited because there is a definite ceiling looming over you. There isn’t really anywhere else to go.
Calculus BC or Physics C, anyone?
Comment by civman2 — Nov 20 06 | 2:37 pm
That was a funny post, but it seems most people took you seriously and missed your subtle point. As for admissions at Ivies, those interested might want to read The Chosen, by Jeremy Karabel. At least until the 60’s, and possibly even now, they are NOT necessarily looking for the best students academically, but looking for the students with the “right” background - and that means a lot from elite private schools. So taking lots of AP classes might be counter productive.
Comment by picco — Nov 27 06 | 5:37 pm