People treating the news that schools are cancelling AP classes as if it’s completely normal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another thread for folks to freak out on. 🙄 Including all students in AP classes is not cancelling AP classes.

Yes, yes it is.

If everyone is in AP -- including students 3+ years below grade level who don't want to be there -- and teachers are discouraged from giving failing grades, then there is effectively no AP.

But this isn't the case for DC....OP is just stirring the pot with lies.

This is the case for dc. It’s so cloying how you all you so excited to fall on your sword, and hold advanced children back from their potential, in some neo-communism style “we all fail together in ap for all” attempt at engineering social progress. It won’t help. It will fail in the long run and retard progress for our country. There are better ways to tackle racial inequity, but this ain’t it. This is basically racism and punishing certain demographics to try and raise others. It’s poorly reasoned. The scary part is anyone who criticizes it is somehow “racially insensitive”. Groupthink idiots. Sorry.

Oh, hey, I'll say it again, troll, don't destroy good willing people's arguments.

This isn't social engineering progress, it's social engineering progress theater to hide that we are STILL giving zero resources to actually supporting the kids who are several grades behind.

Resources are given. Most in the nation. Where are the families? Where is the culture of celebrating education?

money is spent but this does not mean resources are given to the kids. we were promised that with Honors for All in 9th grade kids were having classes with 10, 15 kids max so teachers could identify and support kids who were behind. most of my kid's classes last year in 9th grade had around 30 kids and one had 37. so kids were not given what was promised. do you think that when a teacher entered into the class with 37 kids he was able to identify and supports kids who were behind? this is the usual DCPS dance to hide the real screw up in educating kids from disadvantage background. DCPS has done it for years, from elementary schools posting 10-20% improvements in scores in just a year thanks to teachers changing wrong answers during standardized tests (so the kids who were actually struggling were not helped at a time when it would have been easier) to Ballou celebrating 100% college admission on graduating kids who had missed 4 months of school and were barely literate in some cases . see what this Ballou teacher said about his experience with DCPS ""I've never seen kids in the 12th grade that couldn't read and write," says Butcher about his two decades teaching in low-performing schools from New York City to Florida. But he saw this at Ballou, and it wasn't just one or two students" https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/11/28/564054556/what-really-happened-at-the-school-where-every-senior-got-into-college. what Wilson is doing now is the same, hiding the problems and just going on with the BS to celebrate that now everybody is an AP student. the BS will come out eventually, as it did in the other cases but in the meantime a few classes of kids will finish HS screwed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So are they going to: 1) create a 9th grade academy separate from Wilson while 2) instituting AP for all? Will this mean 9th graders no longer have access to any advanced coursework?

You want advanced AP. Why don’t you just send your kid to get an IB instead. It’s harder. AP wasn’t challenging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So are they going to: 1) create a 9th grade academy separate from Wilson while 2) instituting AP for all? Will this mean 9th graders no longer have access to any advanced coursework?

You want advanced AP. Why don’t you just send your kid to get an IB instead. It’s harder. AP wasn’t challenging.

Not everyone has this choice. But yes, IB programs are much better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On the last ELA PARCC at Wilson,
42% of the school was BELOW grade level.

Grade level is a really low standard. Have you seen these tests?
And yet, it's a good idea to put all these kids in a college level English class in 11th grade? Many can't even read.

An elementary teacher should not be allowed to promote a student to the next grade level unless the student has demonstrated proficiency at the current level.

Why are these teachers just passing the buck?

And then we expect the high school teachers, who already have enough on their plate dealing with teenage kids whose hormones are all over the place, to work miracles?

If a rising 9th grader reads below at a 5th grade level, why do we expect the 9th grade English teacher to make up 3 for the last 3 years? why do we expect this 9th grader to perform at a 9th grade level?

And then we blame it all on systemic racism? Sure, that's part of the problem. But it's bullish*t to expect social engineering at the high school level to cure a problem that may have started at early childhood.

[Anonymous]

Has the Ward3Ednet taken a stance on this AP proposal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So are they going to: 1) create a 9th grade academy separate from Wilson while 2) instituting AP for all? Will this mean 9th graders no longer have access to any advanced coursework?

You want advanced AP. Why don’t you just send your kid to get an IB instead. It’s harder. AP wasn’t challenging.

Not everyone has this choice. But yes, IB programs are much better.

Which IB programs in the District are much better than AP? Eastern? Banneker? DCI? Come, on BASIS offers the most rigor (and crappiest facilities) by a long shot, Wilson second, Wash Latin third. Top IB programs in the DC burbs much better, certainly not here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the last ELA PARCC at Wilson,
42% of the school was BELOW grade level.

Grade level is a really low standard. Have you seen these tests?
And yet, it's a good idea to put all these kids in a college level English class in 11th grade? Many can't even read.

An elementary teacher should not be allowed to promote a student to the next grade level unless the student has demonstrated proficiency at the current level.

Why are these teachers just passing the buck?

And then we expect the high school teachers, who already have enough on their plate dealing with teenage kids whose hormones are all over the place, to work miracles?

If a rising 9th grader reads below at a 5th grade level, why do we expect the 9th grade English teacher to make up 3 for the last 3 years? why do we expect this 9th grader to perform at a 9th grade level?

And then we blame it all on systemic racism? Sure, that's part of the problem. But it's bullish*t to expect social engineering at the high school level to cure a problem that may have started at early childhood.

Teachers cannot hold students back a grade. And research shows that it isn't an effective method to help kids improve. I am not saying these kids should just be passed along That is what all public schools do these days and it is tragic for these kids for many reasons. Public schools do not keep up the promise to teach students to read and write, which is why standardized tests required for graduation were implemented in the late 90s. But we send these kids off thinking they are prepared for college and they accrue a bunch of debt and then drop out because they were paying to just take high school classes again anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the last ELA PARCC at Wilson,
42% of the school was BELOW grade level.

Grade level is a really low standard. Have you seen these tests?
And yet, it's a good idea to put all these kids in a college level English class in 11th grade? Many can't even read.

MYOB. Other kids’ test scores aren’t your concern. The only parents who should complain are the kids who can’t pass non-AP classes. Those are the kids who need help. Your kid will do fine in AP.

But if this is about equity and we're all in this together, aren't bad scores everyone's business? If you're a kid who would have scored a 5 and now its a 4, I can see an argument for fine. If it's a 4 that ended up getting a 3 or a 3 that would have received a 4 with more focused programming and both missed getting credit, that's not so fine. If you are reading at a 4th grade reading level and wasting your time in AP English, that's not fine either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has the Ward3Ednet taken a stance on this AP proposal?

Anyone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the last ELA PARCC at Wilson,
42% of the school was BELOW grade level.

Grade level is a really low standard. Have you seen these tests?
And yet, it's a good idea to put all these kids in a college level English class in 11th grade? Many can't even read.

An elementary teacher should not be allowed to promote a student to the next grade level unless the student has demonstrated proficiency at the current level.

Why are these teachers just passing the buck?

And then we expect the high school teachers, who already have enough on their plate dealing with teenage kids whose hormones are all over the place, to work miracles?

If a rising 9th grader reads below at a 5th grade level, why do we expect the 9th grade English teacher to make up 3 for the last 3 years? why do we expect this 9th grader to perform at a 9th grade level?

And then we blame it all on systemic racism? Sure, that's part of the problem. But it's bullish*t to expect social engineering at the high school level to cure a problem that may have started at early childhood.

Wow. Perhaps you should look up the retention policy and look in to the policy at each DCPS school.
My school has a lot of checkpoints for retention and one of them the parent has to agree. So uh no teachers aren’t passing the buck.

And this is a huge issue. It’s probably due to class size and oh idk title 1 schools who can’t hire a reading specialist, enough social emotional supports, and pay teachers for after school tutoring. So yes it comes down to money and resources, it doesn’t mean your racist but it sure shows you don’t understand.

[Anonymous]

It comes down to money, resources AND ed policy. If you're an older parent of school-age kids who attended public schools, you probably remember a time when the policy was to require weeks of summer school of students who could not work at grade level for them to be permitted to advance to the next grade. Whatever happened to that worthy policy? I don't remember parents having to sign off on kids being held back a grade in the 70s.

My question is why are our ed leaders mostly content to let students who meet academic standards, or exceed them, to pay the price of sitting alongside classmates who have not met standards into the upper elementary grades, in middle school and even in high school (at least at Wilson). Let's call social promotion for what is, criminal negligence in supporting our society's future leaders who aren't from well-off families and/or don't reside in tony zip codes.

In essence, social promotion gives private school and well-off students yet another leg up on the ladder of life, help that too many high-performing poor and moderate income students no longer get. Forcing teachers to a lackluster middle at the expense of high performers gets the US nowhere in particular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It comes down to money, resources AND ed policy. If you're an older parent of school-age kids who attended public schools, you probably remember a time when the policy was to require weeks of summer school of students who could not work at grade level for them to be permitted to advance to the next grade. Whatever happened to that worthy policy? I don't remember parents having to sign off on kids being held back a grade in the 70s.

My question is why are our ed leaders mostly content to let students who meet academic standards, or exceed them, to pay the price of sitting alongside classmates who have not met standards into the upper elementary grades, in middle school and even in high school (at least at Wilson). Let's call social promotion for what is, criminal negligence in supporting our society's future leaders who aren't from well-off families and/or don't reside in tony zip codes.

In essence, social promotion gives private school and well-off students yet another leg up on the ladder of life, help that too many high-performing poor and moderate income students no longer get. Forcing teachers to a lackluster middle at the expense of high performers gets the US nowhere in particular.

One more policy that eliminates the middle class.

[Anonymous]

Exactly, let the stragglers bog down instruction for the rest all the way to 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the last ELA PARCC at Wilson,
42% of the school was BELOW grade level.

Grade level is a really low standard. Have you seen these tests?
And yet, it's a good idea to put all these kids in a college level English class in 11th grade? Many can't even read.

An elementary teacher should not be allowed to promote a student to the next grade level unless the student has demonstrated proficiency at the current level.

Why are these teachers just passing the buck?

DCPS teachers are not allowed to hold kids back. We are also penalized on IMPACT if we give failing grades.

[Anonymous]

AP for all is not the same as no AP. And the value of AP is not determined solely by the exam results. Not all students will get the same value from AP, but every student will gain background knowledge, rare-word vocabulary, and the experience of taking a high-level course. I'm not sure how they will pull this off, but it's worth trying. Try not to be stingy with knowledge. There's enough for everyone.