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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Kids will arrive to college with fewer skills if they are not pushed to achieve.[/quote]

100% correct.  Students who are pushed to achieve in HS will be stronger students in college.  This is not debatable.

My personal experience in college was that students who came from more rigorous HS backgrounds were the best students in freshman year.  I caught up with them (because I needed "A's" in order to get into graduate school, so that was my motivation) but it took two years of hard work to do it.  I have read enough of the quasi-scientific data to believe that my personal experience is backed up by the studies:  that is, high SAT scores are a very good predictor of high performance in college, but only for the freshman year.  The students who want to do well in college (and don't drop out) as a group catch up, SAT scores notwithstanding.

What is being left out of the discussion vis a vis Wilson is whether the "honors and AP for all" situation is going to make the lesser-performing students going in, more academically competent over time.  The difference between the two examples -- college vs high school -- is that colleges traditionally don't dumb down the courses because they DGAF about the socio-economic background of the students.  Once they are in, they are in, and they have to sink or swim in order to survive.  We don't know to what degree the Wilson teachers will be laying out a "sink or swim" platform in their "AP for all" classes.  If they don't, then it is only AP in name. [/quote]

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