Universal AP English & History at Wilson next year for 11th grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet a lot of kids just won’t end up taking the AP exam. For better or worse. Their is no negative consequence for your HS transcript if you don’t take the AP exam.

I think this is what the school is counting on. classes will be dumbed down so not too many kids will do badly, and only the kids who were going to take the AP class anyway will take the test (and supplement on their own) so there won't be a worrying number of bad AP tests. DCPS will celebrate how so any kids now are in AP classes at Wilson and the success of honors for all. I would believe in the school's good faith if there was an acknowledgment that AP classes are hard and that there are kids who are not even at grade level and have not learned how to study for a regular class, let alone an advanced class, and offer some strategy to show how these kids will be able to go from under grade level in English to AP English. instead, there is nothing, just we want to take down racism and the patriarchal society. at least with honors for all. there was the claim that kids would have been in classes of only 10-15 kids and there would have been extra help and tutoring for kids behind (nothing of this happened anyway, but at least it was promised). with the AP plan there is nothing. this is the usual DCPS that cannot educate disadvantage kids and resort to BS papering over the reality, until journalists or others investigate and find the real data

What is your basis for asserting that there is no plan to make this a successful endeavor?

DP. Where is their plan to support lower performing kids to handle the advanced class?

I don't know but the letter said "Moving to AP for all in both of the core English and Social Studies courses is an adaptive change that will require significant technical changes on the part of our staff." That suggests they recognize it's not simply a matter of making it a requirement and calling it a day.

[Anonymous]

Are all teachers qualified to teach AP? do they have the curriculum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet a lot of kids just won’t end up taking the AP exam. For better or worse. Their is no negative consequence for your HS transcript if you don’t take the AP exam.

I think this is what the school is counting on. classes will be dumbed down so not too many kids will do badly, and only the kids who were going to take the AP class anyway will take the test (and supplement on their own) so there won't be a worrying number of bad AP tests. DCPS will celebrate how so any kids now are in AP classes at Wilson and the success of honors for all. I would believe in the school's good faith if there was an acknowledgment that AP classes are hard and that there are kids who are not even at grade level and have not learned how to study for a regular class, let alone an advanced class, and offer some strategy to show how these kids will be able to go from under grade level in English to AP English. instead, there is nothing, just we want to take down racism and the patriarchal society. at least with honors for all. there was the claim that kids would have been in classes of only 10-15 kids and there would have been extra help and tutoring for kids behind (nothing of this happened anyway, but at least it was promised). with the AP plan there is nothing. this is the usual DCPS that cannot educate disadvantage kids and resort to BS papering over the reality, until journalists or others investigate and find the real data

What is your basis for asserting that there is no plan to make this a successful endeavor?

DP. Where is their plan to support lower performing kids to handle the advanced class?

I don't know but the letter said "Moving to AP for all in both of the core English and Social Studies courses is an adaptive change that will require significant technical changes on the part of our staff." That suggests they recognize it's not simply a matter of making it a requirement and calling it a day.

humm really? they have already made the change and all we have is their recognition that it may be a problem? so no plan to solve the problem? normally you have the plan in place to solve a problem before making a change that gets the problem. I am sure NASA knew how to make Armstrong land on the moon before they shoot him in space, they did not start thinking about the moon landing when he was already in orbit.

in this case, it looks like the plan is simply not there. it's an experiment on the backs of the kids. Based on past DCPS experience, DCPS will work hard to cover the data and it will take an external investigation to see how things are really going

[Anonymous]

The principal mentioned she is working on her doctorate. This is probably the research project for her dissertation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The principal mentioned she is working on her doctorate. This is probably the research project for her dissertation

I hope she gets her doctorate really soon. High School principal is too small a position for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal mentioned she is working on her doctorate. This is probably the research project for her dissertation

I hope she gets her doctorate really soon. High School principal is too small a position for her.

If you want to make any sense of what is happening at Wilson, it is important to understand that the principal is an ideologue first and an educator a distant second. She is immune to facts, common sense, and logic, and she is way too comfortable teaching young students what to think, not how to think. Only someone like this would propose putting students who are academically one to two years behind into AP classes immediately following 1.5 years of distance learning. To normal people this does not even come close to passing the sniff test. But to an ideologue this makes perfect sense.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

[Anonymous]

In other school districts would a principal have the authority to make a change like this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal mentioned she is working on her doctorate. This is probably the research project for her dissertation

I hope she gets her doctorate really soon. High School principal is too small a position for her.

If you want to make any sense of what is happening at Wilson, it is important to understand that the principal is an ideologue first and an educator a distant second. She is immune to facts, common sense, and logic, and she is way too comfortable teaching young students what to think, not how to think. Only someone like this would propose putting students who are academically one to two years behind into AP classes immediately following 1.5 years of distance learning. To normal people this does not even come close to passing the sniff test. But to an ideologue this makes perfect sense.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

I don’t know anything about her leadership style but I do agree that next year is a terrible year to totally upend course offerings and requirements. Many students will be behind after DL for so long and many will need time to readjust to in person learning, be dealing with anxiety or returning, etc. If this is so important to the principal she should wait one more year to introduce it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal mentioned she is working on her doctorate. This is probably the research project for her dissertation

I hope she gets her doctorate really soon. High School principal is too small a position for her.

If you want to make any sense of what is happening at Wilson, it is important to understand that the principal is an ideologue first and an educator a distant second. She is immune to facts, common sense, and logic, and she is way too comfortable teaching young students what to think, not how to think. Only someone like this would propose putting students who are academically one to two years behind into AP classes immediately following 1.5 years of distance learning. To normal people this does not even come close to passing the sniff test. But to an ideologue this makes perfect sense.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

I don’t know anything about her leadership style but I do agree that next year is a terrible year to totally upend course offerings and requirements. Many students will be behind after DL for so long and many will need time to readjust to in person learning, be dealing with anxiety or returning, etc. If this is so important to the principal she should wait one more year to introduce it.

The blatant hypocrisy of Wilson's principal and its head of the Social Studies department is off the charts. Last year they eliminated the option for ADVANCED 10th graders to take AP World History. One of the primary justifications they both gave was that ADVANCED 10th graders are not academically ready for AP courses. The very next year they institute "AP for All" and require ALL Wilson 11th graders to AP English and AP History, even those students who are one or more years behind grade level. Give yourself a minute to let that sink in...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal mentioned she is working on her doctorate. This is probably the research project for her dissertation

I hope she gets her doctorate really soon. High School principal is too small a position for her.

If you want to make any sense of what is happening at Wilson, it is important to understand that the principal is an ideologue first and an educator a distant second. She is immune to facts, common sense, and logic, and she is way too comfortable teaching young students what to think, not how to think. Only someone like this would propose putting students who are academically one to two years behind into AP classes immediately following 1.5 years of distance learning. To normal people this does not even come close to passing the sniff test. But to an ideologue this makes perfect sense.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

I don’t know anything about her leadership style but I do agree that next year is a terrible year to totally upend course offerings and requirements. Many students will be behind after DL for so long and many will need time to readjust to in person learning, be dealing with anxiety or returning, etc. If this is so important to the principal she should wait one more year to introduce it.

The blatant hypocrisy of Wilson's principal and its head of the Social Studies department is off the charts. Last year they eliminated the option for ADVANCED 10th graders to take AP World History. One of the primary justifications they both gave was that ADVANCED 10th graders are not academically ready for AP courses. The very next year they institute "AP for All" and require ALL Wilson 11th graders to AP English and AP History, even those students who are one or more years behind grade level. Give yourself a minute to let that sink in...

That is pretty egregious.

[Anonymous]

Well, the entire state of Virginia is currently considering eliminating advanced math classes for the 9th and 10th grades, so it seems Principal Martin's strategy is not unique.

[Anonymous]

Here is an idea - rather than try to differentiate teaching to accommodate different levels in one class, how about we split up the classes into different levels, so that each is set an an appropriate pace for the students. And we let students choose the class they want to be in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, the entire state of Virginia is currently considering eliminating advanced math classes for the 9th and 10th grades, so it seems Principal Martin's strategy is not unique.

Virginia is removing any mah tracking before high school. DCPS will do that next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, the entire state of Virginia is currently considering eliminating advanced math classes for the 9th and 10th grades, so it seems Principal Martin's strategy is not unique.

Virginia is removing any mah tracking before high school. DCPS will do that next.

Well there goal IS to remove some of the intellectual barriers to entry to Thomas Jefferson...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal mentioned she is working on her doctorate. This is probably the research project for her dissertation

I hope she gets her doctorate really soon. High School principal is too small a position for her.

If you want to make any sense of what is happening at Wilson, it is important to understand that the principal is an ideologue first and an educator a distant second. She is immune to facts, common sense, and logic, and she is way too comfortable teaching young students what to think, not how to think. Only someone like this would propose putting students who are academically one to two years behind into AP classes immediately following 1.5 years of distance learning. To normal people this does not even come close to passing the sniff test. But to an ideologue this makes perfect sense.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

I don’t know anything about her leadership style but I do agree that next year is a terrible year to totally upend course offerings and requirements. Many students will be behind after DL for so long and many will need time to readjust to in person learning, be dealing with anxiety or returning, etc. If this is so important to the principal she should wait one more year to introduce it.

The blatant hypocrisy of Wilson's principal and its head of the Social Studies department is off the charts. Last year they eliminated the option for ADVANCED 10th graders to take AP World History. One of the primary justifications they both gave was that ADVANCED 10th graders are not academically ready for AP courses. The very next year they institute "AP for All" and require ALL Wilson 11th graders to AP English and AP History, even those students who are one or more years behind grade level. Give yourself a minute to let that sink in...

Families can fight back by enrolling in AP World History Courses on-line or in the summer (many options these days) and registering for the AP exam as homeschool families. Wilson can't stop students from prepping for this test and taking it in 9th or 10th grades.