When "what's best for the kids" ISN'T.

Apparently our principal has been going to the movies lately, because she has been doing her best impersonation of Helena Bonham Carter (whom I already found icky) in her role as the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland.

With a preremptory wave of her hand, the Red Queen has declared that "doing what is best for the kids" means killing the AP program in our district and replacing it with college credit classes through local universities. The reason why is that "not every kid passes the AP exams."

Well, of course not. If every kid passed them, they wouldn't be considered to be valuable assessments. This is a concept that too many people who make their living talking about education seem to completely misunderstand.

First of all, our district has an open enrollment policy for AP classes, at least for the ones which I teach. I have one student now whom I have recommended to be moved to a regular class for 7 months now due to attendance issues, and yet there's his name on my roster-- next to a failing grade-- every single day. So if you are going to make passing the tests the criterion for determining a program's value, perhaps you should empower teachers to save students who are not excelling to be more appropriately placed.

Now in reality, I don't mind open enrollment. If a kid wants to take my class, I'm more than happy to let him or her try. I've had kids, classic underachievers, who earned Ds in my class and yet were still happy with the experience, and since they and their parents were satisfied, and I couldn't convince them to try harder, that was that. They said they enjoyed the discussion, or they wanted to be with their friends, or whatever, but I certainly didn't try to kick them out of my class in a short-sighted effort to boost test scores. The scores that my students earn are THEIRS, not mine. But to get back to this topic-- if you're suddenly going to make passing the national exams your measure of value, then we teachers should be able to weed out those who are weaker. Sounds like the law of the jungle, but there it is.

Furthermore, nationwide there are hundreds of thousands of kids who take AP tests and do not pass them. Is our very average high school supposed to somehow bust the curve-- and AP scores are curved to represent a certain score distribution each year, make no mistake about that-- just to justify the value of the AP program? Once again, though, here's reality: for the amount of work I am allowed to assign, and the average amount of dedication my students show when a few of them won't give up working 40 hours a week outside of school or whatnot, my students score nicely above the national average on the test in my subject area. However, "above the average" certainly doesn't mean "every kid passes." Yep, for the Red Queen, "better than most" is still not good enough. Gee, why does that sound familiar? Apparently, someone's been drinking the NCLB kool-aid.

Then there's the concept that every kid would pass college credit courses. Traditionally, students have passed college credit classes because.... now pay attention... they have certainly not been taught as college classes. They have not been taught up to college standards. Which is why they were at once both immensely popular with students and looked at askance by the colleges which these students eventually attend. College credits earned through these dual enrollment classes are not as transferable as one might imagine due to the wildly variant quality of standards that vary from high school to high school and from teacher to teacher. At our school, teachers teaching college credit classes were certainly ...encouraged... to keep the classes as easy as possible by administrators who don't want the parents screaming about their kid "being failed by Ms. Mean Teacher" even if they refuse to do the work or study.

Now, dual enrollment college credit classes are ENORMOUSLY popular with the universities that sponsor them. Why? Because the high school teachers teaching these classes are not compensated for being adjunct instructors through these programs. So that means we get to do all of the paperwork required of faculty at these institutions with the only compensation for this extra work and responsibility being the "respect" that the term "adjunct instructor" provides. And anyone in higher academe can tell you-- that would be less than zero. And yet, Local U will charge each one of my students $200 a semester for zero investment upon that university's part. They don't provide texts, they don't provide materials, the kids don't use the college facilities, and they don't compensate their servants-- I mean, their instructors. Now if those students go on to attend Local U, that school will miss out on the full tuition for those courses for which the students received credit-- but that actually doesn't happen as often as you might think. It's a cash cow! And I'm the one chewing the cud, as the teacher.

Yes, I am already an adjunct instructor. And 38% of my students last semester failed the elective course that I taught. Flat out refused to do the papers, but wouldn't drop the class either and would not come for help. Why? Because they were allowed to enroll even though they did not meet the minimum requirements of prior grade point average to take the class. One counselor baldly stated that she enrolled a student with a GPA of less than 1.0 in my class because she couldn't put him anywhere else. So if we're hoping for 100% of students to earn a credential of college credit, no matter how hollow or tarnished, this is not the way to do it.

So it has been decreed that we are going back to college credit without the solicitation of any faculty imput. Since these will probably be easier than the AP classes, our AP program will probably be knocked on the ropes. Kids still will not be learning as much as they should. And, on a personal note, since I am one of the few qualified to teach these classes, I will see the AP program that I have worked so hard to build up over all these years be gutted, and I will be rewarded with at least six different "preps" each year. And if I thought this would really be good for the kids, I wouldn't mind. No really-- I am more gung-ho than most when it comes to sacrificing for the good of the kids.

But, if I could actually get the attention of my redoubtable Queen, here's one last thing I would ask her to consider. Happy teachers do a better job than unhappy teachers. Teachers value strong leaders who support them more than pay increases. And with this, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" attitude, you are alienating the last group of people in the world that you should if you want to look successful in YOUR career. You may have heard of the results from the recent Gates Foundation survey of 40,000 educators-- of which I was one:

While higher salaries are important, teachers say they are less important than a supportive leader. Fewer than half of teachers (45%) say higher salaries are absolutely essential for retaining good teachers. More teachers say it is absolutely essential to have supportive leadership (68%), time to collaborate (54%), and quality curriculum (49%).

Right now, I'm batting 0 for 3 in that list of priorities.

To be blunt, the teachers who have worked the hardest for the students, and who have been the most flexible in issues of scheduling and providing opportunities for students, should be the LAST people whose lives you would make into a living hell. All for the sake of making it easier-- NOT better-- for the kids.

Off with our heads!!!!

It's that time of year when kids (and teachers) are losing it

Is it spring? Already? Must be-- the temperature just jumped an average of forty degrees around here. Therefore, a few friendly public service announcements from your harried local high school teacher:

1. Rejection and acceptance letters from colleges are arriving in mailboxes all over the country. Genuine anguish and elation will ensue. Beware of this season, and if you know any high school seniors, treat each of them solicitously like a bear with a sore paw until the all clear is blown in May. Listen for, as Inigo Montoya so aptly put it, "the sound of ultimate suffering" being emitted from a teenager near you, and respond with kleenex and double mocha lattes. Or chocolate.

2. Senioritis has blossomed like a mushroom cloud over many a school building. Pranks are in the works. If you teach in a rural area, consider this your greased-pig alert-- it's probably the only one you will get from a reliable source. Other unfortunate farm creatures who may get swept into the maelstrom include cows, who will go up stairs but resist going down stairs; horses, which actually are just furry containers to temporarily hold then emit enormous amounts of "numbers one and two" upon pristine hallway floors; and chickens, who apparently have wings for no reason whatsoever except to fry them and coat them in a yummy sauce consisting of "El Muerte" hot sauce and butter. If you teach in a more urban setting, the kids will still probably try to procure the barnyard animals, or set loose snakes in the building, or mice. The mind reels.

3. Advanced placement tests will begin to be given the first week of May. An enormous sigh of relief will be issued all across the country which may accelerate global warming on May 11. Hopefully this breath will not reek of numerous double mocha lattes with a shot of motor oil from QuikTrip.

4. It is also NCLB testing time. My kids' elementary school has now offered eight-- EIGHT!!-- parents' meetings about these dread invaders from the state department of education.

To misquote a famous poem (apologies to William Carlos Williams, and indeed all English majors everywhere):

so much depends
upon
a magic test score
or letter

glazed with portent
and rainwater

beside the white
chickens.

(Who've been
traumatized
by the senior
class.)



You have been warned.

How much AP is too much?

Jay Matthews has a fascinating article at the WaPo about kids' AP courseloads:

Trevor Packer, executive director of the AP program, said he had spoken to a number of college officials about how many of the college-level courses were needed to impress admissions officers and prepare for the rigors of higher education. They told him that "three, four or five AP courses are sufficient" in a high school career, he said. Under that scenario, a student could max out with one AP course as a sophomore and two each in junior and senior years. "Beyond that, they are interested in seeing students participate in other activities."

Many college-bound students in recent years have been spurred by parents, counselors, admissions officers and other advisers -- as well as peer pressure and self-motivation -- to pack their transcripts with tough courses. Many believe the more, the better.

Yesterday, Packer addressed AP overload for the first time at the College Board's annual release of its AP Report to the Nation in downtown Washington. The report once again showed Maryland, the District and Virginia among national leaders in participation on the three-hour AP exams. About a third of graduating seniors in each jurisdiction took an AP test last year, higher than the national average of about a quarter.

Although area students who take a dozen or more AP courses or tests might be overdoing it, Packer and College Board President Gaston Caperton said, the national problem is not that high school students take on too much college-level work but that they take on too little.

Two students on an expert panel convened to discuss the AP report acknowledged that they were guilty of exceeding the five-exam mark. Kyle Daniels, a University of Maryland freshman who graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Prince George's County, said he took at least six AP exams. Celina Guerra, a Harvard University freshman who graduated from Edinburg North High School in south Texas, said she took at least nine. Both said that they took so many they could not recall the exact number.

College Board data showed that only 2.7 percent of AP students took six or more tests in the past three years, as Daniels did. But he said he was glad he did. "College is a competitive place," he said. "Competing in high school is good preparation for college."

College Board officials reported that 2.3 million AP tests were given in 2006 in 37 subjects. Among 2006 high school graduates, about 24 percent took at least one AP exam, up from about 16 percent in 2000. About 15 percent got at least one grade on an AP test high enough for college credit (3 or better on a 5-point scale), up from about 10 percent in 2000.

The five states with the highest percentage of public high school seniors with at least one credit-worthy AP test grade were: New York, 22.7 percent; Maryland, 22 percent; Utah 20.8 percent; Virginia, 20.7 percent; and California, 20.1 percent. The District's mark of 6.6 percent exceeded the percentage in 19 states. In addition, Maryland had the sharpest six-year increase in the nation; its mark in 2000 was 14.1 percent.

There's more to read in the whole thing.

I'll be honest: we have a few kids who take too much, but the main problem we have is kids who won't take AP becuase they want the high GPA without all the hassle.

I was having a chat with some of my students today where they realized that they have almost read the entire textbook already, and that they've never done that before. EVER.

Now, I'll be honest-- that freaks me out just a bit, but let's just leave that aside for a moment. Our school is always walking a fine line between encouraging all kids to take AP and making sure that kids who take AP are willing to rise to the level required. When I first started teaching AP, I got some pressure placed on me to water down the course to make it easier. I know some people do this-- and they are the reason why I now have to spend time completing some stupid audit in my already hectic schedule so that we can use the AP designation next year.

I have made this class as "easy" as I can without making it difficult for my students to possibly earn a 5. I am constantly reminded that I make the kids do more than other AP teachers. I am okay with this because, since I found my groove, our passing rate has increased to over 70% in a school that is solidly diverse in terms of socio-conomic status and future college-attendance plans. I strangely have students who actually seek out the Cornelius experience, so I guess it can't be that bad. They're good kids-- they just need to be pushed and made to feel that they can do it.

But we do have a few who are seeking to be valedictorian who overschedule everything, not just AP. And they make themselves just about crazy. But I have yet to see anyone tell them that enough is enough.

AP expands its reach

As an AP teacher, I am always bemused by discussions of the increasing numbers of students taking AP courses. I wish I had had a chance to take AP courses in high school. At the same time, however, I have seen pressure to make an AP class "easier" in order to fill more seats.

It is this kind of "blessing or a curse" situation which is causing the College Board to begin "auditing" courses that label themselves as following the AP curriculum. I personally resisted pushes to "make the AP class easier"--I was told that kids needed time to play sports and work jobs. This may be true, but I believe there is such a thing as "opportunity cost"-- if you choose to work 20 hours a week and play five sports, perhaps you aren't committed to getting the most out of AP. I feel if you want to be able to put the AP label on your transcript, and that's all you want, this is probably not the class for you. The willingness of some teachers to dumb down the class to boost enrollment is what has caused some universities to question the value of these courses. At the time I began teaching AP, we only had about 40% of students in AP classes taking the exam, and of those only about 20% earned a "passing" score of 3 or better, and practically none of those earned a 4 or a 5. At that time, we were transitioning from offering the course as a college credit course, in which the previous teacher had been teaching about Andrew Jackson in February, to an AP course with the goal of preparing students to pass the AP exam.

I tell the students that I wear three hats in class: the high school teacher hat, the AP teacher hat, and the college preparatory hat. I teach them how to take notes; I teach them how to read and analyze primary sources and a college-level textbook; I teach them how to write analytical essays; I teach them how to budget time; sometimes, I teach them that they have to make choices and cannot have everything they want.

I have seen teachers call a class an AP course and actively discourage every one of their students from taking the exam. I believe this is committing fraud. I am also a bit concerned about rankings of high schools, like those in US News and World Report, which use the number of AP courses taken by students as the primary indicator of a high school's quality-- this often leads to just the kind of dilution of the course that is fraudulent.

I welcome anyone into my class who is willing to accept the standard I set. I have had students who struggled mightily all year long, earning Ds, scoring a 1 on the test, but who obviously got so much out of class discussion and who did not try to drag the class down that as long as they were okay with the low grade, that was fine. They have come back to me from college and told me how much the study skills and analytical skills helped them, or that it taught them that they needed to really work harder as a student. I have had some perfectly capable students bail because they didn't want to do the work. This is also an acceptable choice, and they go with my blessing. But this is an AP course, and I feel it would be dishonest in the extreme to try to water it down. I think I have finally cut out anything extraneous while maintaining rigor. So far, the results seem promising. We average about 65-70% passing now with an open enrollment program in a school which has all sorts of socioeconomic groups and ethnicities. About 15% of my students are African-American, which is up from zero.

This class is not easy. When my students succeed, it is because THEY have put in the time and effort to actually prepare themselves, because there is no way I can do it all for them.