
Scarsdale Adjusts to Life Without Advanced Placement Courses - pg
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/education/07advanced.html?_r=1&em
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tokenadult
Any time you try to compare college applicants by looking at their high school
records, which is something college admission offices have to do every
admission season, you run into the problem of high school courses not being
particularly comparable. That has been true even with the brand name labels
"AP" and "IB." The Advanced Placement program caught on not because of school
districts like Scarsdale, but because of school districts elsewhere around the
United States whose students had trouble making the case that they were ready
for tough colleges. Some families, including homeschooling families like mine,
really appreciate an opportunity for bright young people to test in what is
somewhat like a British A-level system to show what they know.

(Historically, the Advanced Placement program began in the 1950s when prep
school students no longer automatically were placed in the same small group of
elite colleges. Some prep school students went to pretty good, but not tip-
top, colleges and found out they were repeating in college work that they had
already done in high school. The AP tests, which began in such subjects as
French and chemistry, gave such students a chance to get placed into higher-
level college courses that wouldn't repeat what they already learned in high
school.)

I'm all for pluralism, so it's fine by me if one school district or another
either decides to offer AP courses or decides to NOT offer AP courses. Note
that the policy of the College Board is to make AP tests available to
homeschoolers and self-studiers of all kinds, so, as the linked article notes,
some students in high schools without AP courses still take AP tests.

What would a school district like that say if federal curriculum guidelines
became more comprehensive and specified, say, high school level science
education standards in much greater detail?

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fuzzmeister
My school has done something similar for quite some time - we don't have any
AP English or Social Studies courses. Rather, we have a broad variety of
electives in those areas. This works extremely well, as students can take
courses they are interested in without feeling shepherded into the insanity
that is absorbing the entire history of the English language in time for a
single exam. We still do have APs in math and science, however.

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yummyfajitas
From the article: _Physics students now study string theory — a hot topic in
some college courses that is absent from the Advanced Placement exam._

FAIL.

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rglovejoy
Exactly. These students would be far better off mastering ideas like angular
momentum and torque. String theory can wait until grad school.

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tallanvor
Obviously the basics are important, but if string theory keeps them interested
- and maybe even helps them decide to continue in physics through college,
then including it is a very smart decision.

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yummyfajitas
It's a FAIL because they are not learning string theory.

The only way they are actually learning string theory is if the article forgot
to mention this:

 _Math students now learn Partial Differential Equations, Fourier Analysis,
Complex Variables and Hilbert Spaces -- hot topics that are usually not
covered until the 3'rd year of college or beyond._

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at_drinian
<blockquote>“To us, their courses don’t look any different from high-quality
A.P. courses,” [College Board VP Trevor Packer] said. “Simply changing the
letters on the course from A.P. to A.T. looks very cosmetic to
us.”</blockquote>

I would have to agree; these students are still expected to take the AP exams.
If this helps them get away from "teaching to the test," though, more power to
them. At my (very good, private) high school, I took the AP English and AP
Literature exams without having ever taken courses branded as "AP." In fact,
my school didn't even make a distinction between honors and "regular" English;
it was just a uniformly excellent program. I got a 4 on both exams. I did take
a course called "AP European History," but I cannot think of one instance that
I studied for the AP test curriculum the whole year.

But, hey, coming up with a dynamic curriculum that doesn't focus on rote
memorization and easy-to-grade multiple-choice tests is hard, especially with
class sizes larger than 15-20 like mine were.

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jbyers
It was a bit of a personal shock to find this article on HN. I attended
Scarsdale High and AP English was one of my favorite classes. That said, it
was the strength of a wonderful, memorable teacher -- Julie Leerburger -- that
made the class my favorite, not the structure of the AP system.

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s_baar
This is good for a number of reasons. One, because everyone agrees that this
improves the curriculum and shows that standardized tests can be a handicap
even among honors-level students. Scarsdale has courage to be a trend-setter
Two, it is a big challenge to CB to get their act together. Some subjects,
imo, are better for APs than others. Econ, gov, math, and physics are well-
suited, while the english language/lit is pretty much agreed to be the least
useful in terms of actual learning. And even the subjects that are best-suited
to a test format have their flaws. For instance, CB specifies no definitive
textbook for the histories, so you basically need 1 good textbook and a
contrasting review book to cover all the material. Even Physics B has it's
flaws. Even though the test/lab format works well for the test, NO class ever
gets through the last portion on nuclear particles, and there is little
understanding of it come test day. Hopefully this will pressure CB to reform.

Also, this could be a good trend considering how exhausting APs are. Colleges
look at how many are taken relative to those available, and a chance to be in
an "honor's" course without the stress of an AP would be welcome to those
feeling pressured to take as many as possible.

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adamc
Thanks for the article; it gives me hope that we can stop obsessing over the
damned tests and concentrate on teaching the subject material.

