Impending Significant Change in AP Tests

marite
Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:44:33 +0000

Xiggi:

It seems that your main criticism of the AP curriculum is the claim that AP classes are college level classes. And with that criticism, I would agree.
Having said that, I think that, under whatever name we choose to give more advanced classes, there is a crying need for them in American high schools. I was stunned to learn, upon coming to the US, that my baccalaureat could have allowed me to begin as a sophomore. In other words, the standard 12th grade education in the typical American high school was not the equivalent of the typical 12th grade education in France (let’s set aside for the moment that a huge proportion of French students fail the bac the first time they take it).
The AP program tries to do two things (at least) that are not entirely connected: provide a more challenging set of courses and provide a uniform yardstick across schools. Because of the way tests are devised in this country, teaching to the test is very different from the kind of tests administered for A-levels, baccalaureat or German Arbitur (all of which qualify for Advanced Standing).
To give an example: for history, we had to write an essay (I can’t remember how much time we had for that) and have an oral exam. We did not have multiple choice questions (I’d never encountered any until I came here). This kind of format forced students to synthesize and present arguments supported by evidence; this way of teaching is more similar to what a student would encounter in college (at least those I am familiar with).
If AP courses move in that direction, I’m all for it.
As for criticisms that the quality of AP courses vary greatly from school to school, having a national curriculum does not mean that the quality of teaching is the same across schools and teachers. My brother sends his daughters to a private school with a 100% bac pass rate because his local public high school has only a 30% pass rate. The curriculum is the same in the two schools (“if it’s Tuesday October 6, at 9am, all French tenth graders must be reading chapter 3 of the Petit Lavisse history textbook” or some such).
Much as I disliked the test-driven character of the AP courses my Ss took, I deeply appreciated that they were available for my Ss to take. And neither sought college credit for their APs.