The latest memo had a sentence in it that said we need to improve the scores on our AP exams. I was really pissed when I read this. The AP calculus scores are always the highest AP scores in the building (except for native language Spanish). If Mr. Department Head had a problem with our AP scores, he should have spoken to the people directly involved instead of one of his lovely memos and then, it hit me.... He wasn't complaining about us. He was worried about the kids that would be placed in these classes next year.
Our school has been cited for not having enough (or any) African American students in our AP classes. Principal Suit is suddenly concerned about this. I imagine his bonus will reflect this lack of diversity or he would not really care. Mr. Deaprtment Head is worried that Suit will start putting kids into these classes that have not taken the required prerequisites or even if they took the prerequisite, they had not scored high enough in that course.
Mr. Department Head is worried about his statistics. He would probably crap his pants if he heard me telling the kids not to worry about the exam. This exam is one exam that will have no long lasting effect on their lives. If they score a 4 or a 5, they might get to skip a term of calculus. If they don't, they can retake the course and and get an easy A. My idea is to learn the course, learn to think. Passing is just the icing on the cake.
1 comment:
Like, totally.
From the educators' point of view, the role we serve in the classroom has become skewed. It's as if we're engaged in a great clash of wills with the educrats over how intellect is best nurtured. I admire anyone who hangs in there preserving some of the old ways.
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