tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post634508996971906214..comments2024-03-27T08:53:29.267-04:00Comments on CURMUDGUCATION: Federal AP BoondogglePeter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-565796031820493042015-08-14T17:49:50.137-04:002015-08-14T17:49:50.137-04:00I went through this for the past 3 years. NMSI cla...I went through this for the past 3 years. NMSI claims to raise the enrollment numbers in AP AND the pass rate. I think this is really only true for the schools which have highly prepared students who are not in AP and get swept into it. For those of us who have a small population of prepared students, the program does not do this. My classes went from all highly-motivated and prepared students to 1/3 prepared and 2/3 wondering why the hell they were in AP Physics. The number of passes in my AP classes has remained the same, even as enrollment has tripled.<br /><br />There is another way to increase the test pass rate other than flushing out the reluctant, and that is to buy in and relentlessly focus on teacher and student test prep. One teacher has inspirational posters up stating "I will pass the AP ____ Test." I cannot bring myself to be that disingenuous to my nature, which is to engage in figuring out how the universe works. <br />Science is so awesome, to reduce its study to a 3-hour test makes me feel a little sick.<br /> <br />Another strategy is to double-block AP classes. I do not, because I was a kid interested in everything, and still believe that students in high school should have a life outside of my physics class. <br /><br />As far as I am concerned, after being through NMSI, I would not shed a tear if the whole AP program dried up and blew away. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05168566567751854277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-35596965483928427482015-08-14T15:15:31.189-04:002015-08-14T15:15:31.189-04:00More about Tom Luce:https://www.sunset.texas.gov/b...More about Tom Luce:https://www.sunset.texas.gov/bios/mr-tom-lucelaMissyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00516322307725011313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-3627495102125816812015-08-14T15:12:28.655-04:002015-08-14T15:12:28.655-04:00Although recently all roads lead back to Chicago, ...Although recently all roads lead back to Chicago, the AP trail leads back to Texas. Tom Luce served in Bush’s cabinet as an under secretrary 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.” - an early iteration of NCLB. At first called Just4Kids! (yep with the same punctuation as Jeb!), it morphed into the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI, sounding all federal and official).<br />See: http://www.nms.org/AboutNMSI/BoardofDirectors.aspx<br /><br />I saw this “miracle” of the AP performed here in Boston. The Mass Math and Science Initiative set up shop in my school (89% of our students were minorities). We already had an outstanding track record of well-prepared kids diligently working their way toward scores of 4 and 5 in a host of AP classes. But the goal was not to have kids do well, the goal was simply to get more kids to take AP classes. Why?<br /><br />Well, although teachers had long taught AP courses successfully, no outsider consultants were involved. Suddenly, we were inundated with “verticle alignment” workshops, AP workbooks, CD’s, mandatory extra time for teacher AP training (including Saturdays) and cash payments to students taking the tests, as well as “merit pay” to AP teachers for high scores. In other words, what had been an in-house effort to take our most talented students a step forward toward distinguishing their academic records was co-opted to make bank for test fees, materials and consultants.<br /><br />In the same time period, the College Board began to require that AP teachers write up and submit an AP curriculum to them for approval (un-reimbursed, of course), and AP training courses began to be required of teachers so that they would be “qualified” to teach those “endorsed” classes. More “ka-ching” at the cash register.<br />Remember that our faculty and students had a long track record of success in this arena. Under pressure from the school department, our numbers of students taking AP classes expanded exponentially, until nearly every student was enrolled in some AP class or another. So we met the goal of more kids, but of course our percentage of high scores fell off precipitously.<br /><br />It so happened that my own kids were applying for college during this time period. I noticed that though AP had been on the lips of admissions officers of “elite” schools four years earlier for my older child, now there was little interest. Every admissions person I asked about this at competitive liberal arts colleges had the same answer – that credential has been devalued and they were not impressed.<br /><br />One more thing: the AP exams are quite lucrative because they are given in school, on a school day and proctored by teachers working their regular jobs. So unlike the SAT, there's less overhead and more buck$.<br /><br />Christine Langhoff<br />laMissyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00516322307725011313noreply@blogger.com