Reply to Are AP-type classes racist?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have mixed ancestry, but identify as AA. I’m also a mid-career public school teacher and have taught in a diverse variety of schools. I taught AP for three years and two of my own children have taken AP courses. Here’s my thoughts:
1) who gets selected to take AP and who gets support during the course can be shaped by systemic racism. My district had a huge problem with excluding students of color from these courses when selection was based on teacher recommendation. Once students were allowed to chose, the enrollment increased a lot temporarily. When they dropped a bit, surveys found that students of color withdrew because they felt unwelcome by the teachers and white peers. Not because the work was difficult or boring. Because they were asked if they were in the wrong classroom or not called upon unless the question was about race. When my older DD took AP, she was not invited to the elective support course that most of the white students were enrolled in. When she asked about it, the teacher told her that it was for students who needed to get a 5 to apply for highly competitive colleges and she could get into a state school or HBCU just fine with a 3. Of course, we had a meeting about that and the teacher said she meant no harm, it was just based on her experience with students like my daughter. She failed to clarify what she meant other than DD’s skin color. DD transfered to the other AP teacher and ended up earning a 5.
2) The tests themselves do not seem racially biased or class-biased in the way that the SAT can be. [/quote]

Not op but thank you for sharing that. I think it’s important people know about the subtle discouragement that can and does take place. Do you have thoughts about whether APs should phased out? [/quote]

No, I think advanced classes like AP, IB, Project Lead the Way, or stand alone courses should be offered under outside review and with frequent feedback from students. With oversight, the barriers I noted can be dismantled. MCPS has come a long way in their attitudes toward students with special needs taking advanced courses. White friends have noted that their now adult children with IEPs or 504 were treated similarly despite excelling academically in regular courses. Today, it would be almost unthinkable for 2E students to be blocked from advanced studies or treated dismissively once enrolled. [/quote]

It is thinkable.

In FCPS, there are no team taught honors or AP classes and not taught in contained classes either.

Kids that have a lot of trouble functioning in large classes or that need assistance from a resource or sp.ed. teacher, even if they are incredibly bright or gifted, are not given any other option except regular Ed small or team taught class or suck it up and flounder in a regular AP or Honors class.

[/quote]

Where do you want the funding for extra SPED teachers for team taught/self contained advanced courses to come from?  As the sole teacher of advanced math classes in my middle school, I would have loved to have a team teacher in class with me to support the kids who needed it (everyone could have benefited!) but we already had class sizes of 30+, SPED teachers had caseloads approaching ridiculous numbers, and we struggled to fill the open sped positions we had.  To add another position for the 2 kids with executive functioning issues who wanted honors algebra in 8th grade...? Never going to happen in public school.  The strategy was to put them in a study skills class to support multiple kids across different classes in one room.

I would LOVE more support for SPED in advanced classes, but it is $$$ and not federally mandated.  The schools don't even have to offer the courses for gen ed students, they just do because they have a critical mass. The years we had enough SPED kids (6+) sign up for a class to justify a team teacher, I got one, but the years that only 1 or 2 kids registered, there wasn't funding for it.[/quote]

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