Reply to Another change to the grading policy?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I also wonder if AP and Honors being default for our middle of the road or better kids isn't driving these policies? APs and Honors used to be for exceptional learners. These are the kids who can typically handle these stressors. Maybe there are more stressed out kids now, in part, because we are forcing them into unnecessarily stressful situations for the sake of our pride or "college admissions" or to keep up with the neighbors' kids. [/quote]
+1 billion[/quote]

You’ve never taught in a MCPS magnet if you think highly gifted kids can handle these stressers. Many of them freak out or freeze when the workload is intense. [/quote]

Seems like more and more kids are entering college with more APs than ever so someone is doing well.[/quote]

More kids are taking APs than before because institutional barriers to opportunity are being dismantled. It doesn’t mean the students taking them are highly gifted. I’ve taught AP in MCPS. You don’t need to be highly gifted to earn AP credits. The biggest factor is a willingness to put on the hard work or learning the material and taking practice exams. Many students willing to do that were tracked out of AP in the past. Even those not officially tracked out were sometimes made to feel unwelcome. One of my daughters was “welcomed” on her first day in her first AP class with “Are you sure you are in the right class?” when she walked in and took a seat. The teacher couldn’t seem to explain to me, the guidance counselor, and the principal why he greeted the sole AA student that way, but it was hard for him to deny since several students heard him say it. I’m happy to report that 13 years later when he had my son and several other boys of color, the teacher managed to keep any surprise he had to himself. [/quote]

You’ve told this story before and it was too bad.  But the pendulum has swung too far.  I am an AP teacher on several Teacher fora.  There are many teachers saying that the majority of their students are below grade level.  That is a problem for those who could actually handle college level work, because they are not getting that.  Scores also don’t measure the decline as the exams have changed along with the classrooms.[/quote]

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