Reply to Proposed APS Calendar Policy

Forum Index » VA Public Schools other than FCPS

Reply to "Proposed APS Calendar Policy"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What I don’t understand is how/why starting a week earlier = a better result on the AP exam?

Do APS students struggle on the AP exams such that the whole school system/families should rearrange their lives?

Are there not other, less burdensome means of improving AP scores?  One idea: how about a five day school week on a more regular basis?  Is their evidence that starting earlier is better than, for example, more practice exams?

What is the value of AP exams?  Will colleges in face accept AP credit?   Why are we all re arranging our lives for this?[/quote]

Also, [b]moving the school year back one week has minimal impact on AP testing after you just added a week of new holidays, created an assumption that winter break will be at least two weeks, and go out of your way to find reasons to close schools on things like Election Day, or closing on the Friday before Veteran's Day when Veteran's Day falls on a Saturday.[/b] Kids taking AP tests are still worse off than they were before all those changes. It's clear they aren't the priority and the calendar isn't being developed for them. [/quote]

Yes.
However, I don't believe calendars need to be constructed around AP exams specifically. They should be made based on what best facilitates instruction and learning in general - for everyone, not just those taking AP exams.

To the previous questions:
Value of AP exams is college credit, if the student passes with a high enough score. Some colleges accept a score of 3, others require higher. Getting the college credit for specific AP courses means a class the student doesn't need to take in college. That then (1) potentially decreases costs of college, depending on the # of college credits obtained; (2) frees up some time to take alternative classes/electives of interest; or (3) lightens the semester courseload for students.  #3 is helpful for kids like mine who has difficulty juggling so many courses simultaneously. They were able to take a lighter load (4 instead of 5, for example) classes their first semester of college, helping ease their transition.

As to beginning a week earlier to facilitate better AP exam results: this is because AP exam dates are set by the College Board and are not set by the school district. So, theoretically, students beginning the school year later have less time to get through the course material and prepare for the exams. However, as you noted above, the additional days off negate that anyway.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics