To parents of high school students: is the pressure to take AP classes really this bad?

[Anonymous]

I just saw this video on the NYTimes website about the pressure that kids are under to take AP classes and how they really might not be learning that much from the classes except how to regurgitate the information:
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/24/opinion/1247466680941/advanced-pressure.html

Is it really this bad? My kids are both in ES right now and are good students. I just don't want this kind of pressure for them when they get to HS. Am I the only one that is worried about the stress that kids are under?

I also read somewhere (sorry, can't remember where) that in a survey of high schoolers, 80% admitted that they had cheated in an AP class (can't remember if that statistic was for cheating on assignments or cheating on the actual exam). Are kids under so much pressure to take AP classes - maybe because they think it is the only way they will get into a good college - that they will resort to cheating?

Anyway, I would really love to hear from those with older kids in high school who have experienced this first hand.

[Anonymous]

This is a subject a couple of us with experience in both business and education have addressed in composing our Skills for Life Course.

Check out our blog today (and other days) that stresses the need for a dialogue about what we have lost in the elements of the classical education that has been the hallmark of the good school for centuries.

No child left behind? With the loss of the true liberal arts, we're leaving lots of the most important aspects of the child behind!

www.connectionsedu.com

[Anonymous]

I grew up here and went to HS in this area and 20 years ago the pressure was intense to take AP courses. Can't imagine what it must be like now. Kids who took non-AP and non-GT classes were definitely looked down on and treated like second class citizens. College was a breeze compared to the pressure cooker of my HS.

[Anonymous]

I agree that there has always been a pressure in this area to take AP classes. The difference is that 20 years ago, the pressure was mainly from parents or the students themselves who wanted to take a class to learn something more deeply than they could in a regular level class. Now, the pressure is coming from the schools thanks to Jay Mathews at the Post who rates schools based on HOW MANY AP tests are taken at each school (not even how well they did). People really get into this ranking thing and think that it means something if their school gets listed in the top 100. So the schools really encourage (pressure?) the kids to take as many AP classes as possible to bump up their ranking. Plus there is the incredible stress to do whatever it takes to get into a "good" college. It doesn't really seem to be about learning anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that there has always been a pressure in this area to take AP classes. The difference is that 20 years ago, the pressure was mainly from parents or the students themselves who wanted to take a class to learn something more deeply than they could in a regular level class. Now, the pressure is coming from the schools thanks to Jay Mathews at the Post who rates schools based on HOW MANY AP tests are taken at each school (not even how well they did). People really get into this ranking thing and think that it means something if their school gets listed in the top 100. So the schools really encourage (pressure?) the kids to take as many AP classes as possible to bump up their ranking. Plus there is the incredible stress to do whatever it takes to get into a "good" college. It doesn't really seem to be about learning anymore.

So true! This is also why every other school in MoCo is starting an IB program -- because Jay Matthews' methodology looks at IB as well as AP.

[Anonymous]

And this is also why even middleclass families take a serious look at whether they can afford private high school, where the academics are rigorous but where small class size, true liberal arts curriculum, and appropriate support are seen as essential.

[Anonymous]

The quite amazing backdrop to all this talk about high schools becoming such juggernauts for advanced studies is that in many even very elite universities their is a real stepdown to academic-lite.
The once classic core curriculum has gone into the dumpster --trashed by so-called relevance --- and students just sort of roam freely through a smorgasbord of classes, some academically laughable.
Talk to almost any current uni student and you'll fail to find any rhyme or reason to what they are "studying" until they fatefully funnel off into a major.
They will spend the rest of their lives wondering, cluelessly, what was liberal about that experience.
About those majors--have students who are bright be wary of professors who try to siphon them off with all sorts of blandishments into their respective departmental majors to fill the slots on which their personal wellbeing depends.
Cannot begin say how many really excellent students I've known who switched majors quaffing that academic koolaid, coming to reflect ruefully on that mistake.
The bottom line --high schools should be providing the sound classical liberal arts curriculum along with solid sciences and math (where AP is gilding) because it is likely the last time students will really have an environment that is under control of anybody, sad to say!
Yet many high schools are falling into the same trap that has already ensnared too many universities --the abdication of the traditions of centuries of the classical ratio studiorum.
Many parents report being flummoxed by what is going on with education at all levels--speak up. Don't take it any more!
Gadzooks, is it possible that community colleges might be the last bastion --they are getting better and better (and are assuredly a great buy) and probably are benefiting from being out of the loop of academic circuses.

[Anonymous]

[apologia pro mea for that there "their"