Proposed APS Calendar Policy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don’t understand is how/why starting a week earlier = a better result on the AP exam?

Do APS students struggle on the AP exams such that the whole school system/families should rearrange their lives?

Are there not other, less burdensome means of improving AP scores? One idea: how about a five day school week on a more regular basis? Is their evidence that starting earlier is better than, for example, more practice exams?

What is the value of AP exams? Will colleges in face accept AP credit? Why are we all re arranging our lives for this?

It doesn't. One week doesn't provide that much more time to get through the material or to review or prepare. However, if even a few class periods affords the opportunity for students to do more review or a practice run, that's valuable.

So valuable that you'd be willing to replace holidays with an excused absence policy? Or a shorter winter break?n

I would happily replace religious holidays with an excused absence policy. I would be even happier to have a shorter winter break. Two weeks is a long time.
But I feel that way regardless of AP exams. I have no issues with starting before Labor Day, either. I would much rather get out earlier in June. The problem is, it doesn't work out that way in Arlington because we have to take almost every holiday off AND have a full two weeks for winter break.

I think the Friday before Labor Day is silly; but I don't care enough about that. It's nice to "ease" into the beginning of the year rather than jumping into a five day week right away. But I'd be fine either way. It's all the disruptions throughout the year, and extra-long breaks that make it harder to quickly get back into it all when they're over, that I strongly dislike and believe takes away from optimizing learning. The more breaks you have, the more "getting back into it" there is, more "rehash/review" and (especially with little kids) settling back down into the routine and focusing. That's what takes away from instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don’t understand is how/why starting a week earlier = a better result on the AP exam?

Do APS students struggle on the AP exams such that the whole school system/families should rearrange their lives?

Are there not other, less burdensome means of improving AP scores? One idea: how about a five day school week on a more regular basis? Is their evidence that starting earlier is better than, for example, more practice exams?

What is the value of AP exams? Will colleges in face accept AP credit? Why are we all re arranging our lives for this?

Also, moving the school year back one week has minimal impact on AP testing after you just added a week of new holidays, created an assumption that winter break will be at least two weeks, and go out of your way to find reasons to close schools on things like Election Day, or closing on the Friday before Veteran's Day when Veteran's Day falls on a Saturday. Kids taking AP tests are still worse off than they were before all those changes. It's clear they aren't the priority and the calendar isn't being developed for them.

Yes.
However, I don't believe calendars need to be constructed around AP exams specifically. They should be made based on what best facilitates instruction and learning in general - for everyone, not just those taking AP exams.

To the previous questions:
Value of AP exams is college credit, if the student passes with a high enough score. Some colleges accept a score of 3, others require higher. Getting the college credit for specific AP courses means a class the student doesn't need to take in college. That then (1) potentially decreases costs of college, depending on the # of college credits obtained; (2) frees up some time to take alternative classes/electives of interest; or (3) lightens the semester courseload for students. #3 is helpful for kids like mine who has difficulty juggling so many courses simultaneously. They were able to take a lighter load (4 instead of 5, for example) classes their first semester of college, helping ease their transition.

As to beginning a week earlier to facilitate better AP exam results: this is because AP exam dates are set by the College Board and are not set by the school district. So, theoretically, students beginning the school year later have less time to get through the course material and prepare for the exams. However, as you noted above, the additional days off negate that anyway.

Is this accurate today? I mean I know it was true decades ago, but I thought colleges had wised up and realized that they were missing tuition this way and that APs weren’t actually equivalent to a college class. Or, is that just all the top schools which I know have eliminated all of these perceived AP benefits? Serious question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don’t understand is how/why starting a week earlier = a better result on the AP exam?

Do APS students struggle on the AP exams such that the whole school system/families should rearrange their lives?

Are there not other, less burdensome means of improving AP scores? One idea: how about a five day school week on a more regular basis? Is their evidence that starting earlier is better than, for example, more practice exams?

What is the value of AP exams? Will colleges in face accept AP credit? Why are we all re arranging our lives for this?

Also, moving the school year back one week has minimal impact on AP testing after you just added a week of new holidays, created an assumption that winter break will be at least two weeks, and go out of your way to find reasons to close schools on things like Election Day, or closing on the Friday before Veteran's Day when Veteran's Day falls on a Saturday. Kids taking AP tests are still worse off than they were before all those changes. It's clear they aren't the priority and the calendar isn't being developed for them.

Yes.
However, I don't believe calendars need to be constructed around AP exams specifically. They should be made based on what best facilitates instruction and learning in general - for everyone, not just those taking AP exams.

To the previous questions:
Value of AP exams is college credit, if the student passes with a high enough score. Some colleges accept a score of 3, others require higher. Getting the college credit for specific AP courses means a class the student doesn't need to take in college. That then (1) potentially decreases costs of college, depending on the # of college credits obtained; (2) frees up some time to take alternative classes/electives of interest; or (3) lightens the semester courseload for students. #3 is helpful for kids like mine who has difficulty juggling so many courses simultaneously. They were able to take a lighter load (4 instead of 5, for example) classes their first semester of college, helping ease their transition.

As to beginning a week earlier to facilitate better AP exam results: this is because AP exam dates are set by the College Board and are not set by the school district. So, theoretically, students beginning the school year later have less time to get through the course material and prepare for the exams. However, as you noted above, the additional days off negate that anyway.

Is this accurate today? I mean I know it was true decades ago, but I thought colleges had wised up and realized that they were missing tuition this way and that APs weren’t actually equivalent to a college class. Or, is that just all the top schools which I know have eliminated all of these perceived AP benefits? Serious question.

I don't think it was ever 100% across all schools. But yes, colleges do still accept AP credits. There really isn't much point in students taking the AP exams if nobody will accept the credits.