Our former principal promised us, AP Physics 1 students at the time, he’d create an AP Physics 2 class for us for this school year which just started, but was dismissed at the end of the school year and never was able to have the class created. Now we have a new principal and everyone who signed up for AP Physics 2 was put in AP Physics 1 again.
The only way to get through to the administration is for the students to talk to them because teachers are oftentimes threatened with the possibility of being fired for insisting on anything. I believe it is of utmost importance to myself (planning to be a physics major), and all of those who signed up for the class to have this class created. There is space in the AP teacher’s schedule for it as well as our own.
What would I have to do to get through to the principal and what would be the best way to go about asking? I wouldn’t want to give up a course that both the teacher and students strongly desire to see created.
When I needed to get my schedule change and the school was ignoring me I got my mom to go bug administration until they fixed it. (It worked haha). However it’s probably a better idea to go to your guidance counselor and talk about it.
Wait-- did you all take the AP Physics exam? And do well on it?
Then why on earth are you retaking the course?
And if you didn’t take the exam or do well on it, then why on earth are you hoping to take the second course?
To answer your question: two or three of you need to make an appointment with the principal’s secretary. Go in calmly, like an adult, and make your case rationally.
What happened was that everyone who signed up for AP Physics 2 were put in AP Physics 1 because AP Physics 2 was not created at our school as our former principal promised he’d do. I’m not supposed to be retaking AP Physics 1 as I’d get no credit for this year. I need to talk to the new principal to get the AP Physics 2 class created.
If the OP and his/her classmates haven’t done well on the AP Physics 1 exam, why would the school go to the trouble of offering AP Physics 2? It would be setting them up for failure-- throwing them into a course they’re unprepared for. The OP said the counselors think the kids aren’t ready for AP Physics 2— do the results from AP Physics 1 bear that out??
The fact that the teacher has “room in his schedule” for the new course doesn’t mean that now, at the very end of August, he has time to adequately prepare it. It’s not just a matter of throwing a new course onto a teacher’s schedule-- there’s more to offering a new course (particularly an AP course) than that. I’m teaching a non-AP course I haven’t taught in 15 years-- and I spent some serious time this summer prepping it… even though I know the material and have taught the course before. Know that teaching a course you haven’t taught before-- well, teaching it well-- requires significant preparation. When is that supposed to happen?
And for what it’s worth, I’m not sure where the OP got the information that " teachers are oftentimes threatened with the possibility of being fired for insisting on anything." Perhaps it’s true in his/her school, I don’t know. But I know that in my school:
The principal is willing to listen to any reasonable request. Whether or not it happens depends on a variety of factors, but he listens.
Teachers, like anyone else in the real working world, don’t get to “insist” on the conditions of their workplace. We don’t get to “insist” on what courses are offered or on which ones we’ll teach. Like everyone else who works, we have a boss and part of working means doing what the boss requests.
But the most fundamental question is this: are these kids capable of doing well in the course? It seems to me that the most reliable measure of that would be their grades on the AP Physics 1 exam.
@bjkmom I don’t think this has anything to do with how well the OP and others did in Physics 1. I have seen a lot of contrived “reasons” given by schools for doing what they do. However, I do agree that creating a class takes a lot of preparation.
xoxdreamer - It might ne too late in the game for the principal to “create” a class. Make sure you have a Plan B. My DS17 was supposed to get Physics C this year, and when the class was cancelled, they assigned him to AP Physics 1. This doesn’t help him with his goals, so he opted out of that class and chose another AP instead.
A new principal is not required to fulfill a promise from a previous principal. Is the teacher who taught you and your classmates AP Physics 1 last year still employed at your school? If so, that teacher’s opinion could weigh heavily in a thoughtful discussion of the future of an AP Physics 2 class for this year.
The best argument would be to gather factual data about the AP Physics 1 class. How many of the students took the end of the year AP test, and what were the scores for those tests? If the majority of the students passed the AP test, then it seems to a normal person that putting them back into the same class would be useless.
But if the class as a whole did not score well (whether that was due to poor teaching or poor understanding on the students’ part) then it would be wise to forgo passing students on into the next level physics course.
If most of the students passed the AP test, and you have a good relationship with the teacher who taught last year, then I suggest you try to garner that teacher’s support when you gather some friends to go speak with the new principal.
Dress more formally and neatly, speak politely and make requests and not demands, and ask Why? several times in hopes of listening and understanding the principal’s point of view. It may be a bureaucratic or scheduling issue, and not a direct punishment, even though it may come across to you that way.
If you can’t get the class you want, and you passed the AP Test with a good score, I suggest you withdraw from taking the same course again. If, however, you didn’t do well on the AP test, I highly recommend you retake the course. If indeed this will be your major in college, having a solid foundation of knowledge is worth a repeat.
Note that the overall scores on AP Physics 1 were much lower than expected. 4s and 5s totaled 17% and passing was only 37%. There are threads somewhere here on CC about the controversy over the poor preparation provided to teachers by the CollegeBoard for this new test and/or the influx of a large number of unprepared students.
5: 4.1% 4: 12.8% 3: 20% 2: 30.2% 1:32.9%
The school may be unaware of the overall Physics 1 picture when looking at scores specifically from your school.
Yes, I am aware that he is not obliged to create a class that the former principal said he would create. I am not going to be overly demanding as he is under no obligation to grant us the class.
Our class averaged a 3. It wasn’t bad considering the statistics. Re-taking a course means no credit will be given for the second year. That is not something I wish to have happen.
And update: the principal said he’d make the class if we got a list of students.