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Should we inflate Advanced Placement grades?
Class Struggle by Jay Mathews
The Washington Post
November 27, 2009
The Rochester, N.Y., public schools do a fine job. Their leaders often have great ideas. But according to Rochester school board member Mike Reno, they are talking about doing something to their Advanced Placement courses that could be troublesome, even though I once thought it was a good idea. (Some people who know me say that is the very definition of a bad idea.)
Here is what Reno revealed in an email to me:
"Our district, in an effort to increase AP participation, is proposing to lower the grading scale for AP classes. The idea is based on the notion that kids in Rochester don’t want to take AP classes because they are afraid that the tougher work will lead to a lower grade, and they don’t want to damage their GPA for fear it will harm their college entrance chances. The district’s logic suggests by that lowering the grading scale, students will have a better chance of getting a better grade, and therefore be more willing to take the class.
Read more HERE.
7 comments:
"Should we inflate Advanced Placement grades?"
No.
"But I later realized I had misunderstood what Escalante was doing."
Yep.
CCPS has always inflated AP grades. Just compare your kid's reportcard grade (A or B) with his AP score (1 or 1.5)
And this has been going on for years.
So why hasn't the BOE done anything to discipline the teachers that perpetuate this dishonesty?
It's a joke. We have teachers that are now stopping any teaching of their AP class, as they feel that the students can take the class in college.
Could Anon @ 1:57 please explain: “We have teachers that are now stopping any teaching of their AP class, as they feel that the students can take the class in college.”
Do you mean that CCPS has teachers qualified to teach AP classes who will not do so anymore because the students can simply take the class in college? Because (by implication) trying to teach AP in CCPS is pointless?
Or do you mean that teachers are not following the AP course syllabus? What are they doing instead?
No.
I mean that the teacher has stopped teaching the class material for the year.
Now they are working on college applications. So, I guess you can say that anybody in the class will get a big old "1" on the AP test.
Ain't that a knee slapper?
LegalBeaglette,
Why don't you find out why they won't allow experts from the community in to observe teachers that year after year have the majority of their AP students score an average of 1.5 on their tests?
They may be "highly qualified" by the corrupt teacher's unions, but they either don't know the material, can't teach worth crap, or all of the above.
Jaime Escalante has died. May he rest in peace.
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