Please folks. Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not trying to bash SMHS or anything. I just think it’s strange that IF the numbers reported are true and IF my understanding is correct (which it might not be).
I don’t understand why a school would be sending 100% or near 100% of the student body to take AP classes knowing that the majority of them aren’t going to be passing.
AP classes are “harder” than normal classes. In addition, some students don’t have academic performance for them to succeed in an AP level class. And others might not have the desire to be in an AP/intense class.
Doing this imho is disservice to students and teachers for many reasons.
1. A student who takes an AP class who doesn’t have a chance of passing probably should have a course grade reflecting that….
Getting a bunch of C’s in an AP classes isn’t going to be more helpful to getting to a college than getting a bunch of A’s and B’s in a non AP class.
2. So I don’t understand why 100% participation would be a good thing…Unless the school is somewhat bending the rules and inflating the grades.. IE: telling students you can’t get lower than a B- if you take an AP class ,regardless of how you do on the actual AP exam….
But then, if that’s the case, that’s cheating…
3. Telling teachers they have to teach AP level to every student is a disservice to the teachers. Teaching resources are limited…Spending time to teach the same higher level content to everyone (even those that aren’t ready for it) is a waste of resources. It doesn’t help people who lack the ability and drive to be in an AP level. And it takes away from folks who are at the AP level, since it’s less time that can be dedicated to helping them…
4. To me this seems more of a product of the no-child left behind program, only run in reverse… Rather than “dumbing down” to a lowest common denominator approach, schools here on the surface appear to try to be “smarting up the average”……..despite the obvious fact (that lots of parents don’t want to accept ) that most kids are NOT the same and do NOT have the same skill level.
Not all kids are born equal with equal skill sets…AP classes are not a prequisite for getting into college… So I’m not sure why this ranking system would be trying to give parents the false idea that we everyone should be taught at AP levels when your pass rate is only 55%…
