A lasting line from the movie “Cool Hand Luke”
I didn’t post on Friday because I gave exams all day. Which is really stupid of me to every every single learner I have an exam. Now I have to sit down and read through and grade all 130 of them. At some point I will figure out how to pace it so I am not killing myself, but evidently that is not now.
But something happened on Thursday that bothered me. A lot. I blogged earlier about the New respect I had for the AP Stats curriculum, and it is true. I do feel that way. But I wanted to see the issue from the viewpoint of my learners.
On Thursday I asked every single one of my AP Stats class this question, in the same way, every time. “You all are AP learners, and you probably have taken or are taking more than one AP class. In your opinion, how many of you feel that the AP classes are harder, more rigorous, and are preparing you for college in a better way than regular classes?”
Period 2: 0 learners raised their hands
Period 3: 2 learners raised their hands
Period 5: 5 learners raised their hands.
This is a sample each period of 32, 35 and 34 learners of a mixture of Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. A total of 7 learners felt that AP courses were preparing them better for college than regular courses.
What a disconnect.
I told them my story from my grad school experience. They were a little shocked. It may have changed some minds, but I am not sure. What I do know from this is that we have a disconnect between what the adults in my school are saying, teaching and preaching, and what the learners are thinking about the courses we are teaching.
I am not sure what to do about this, but I am going to spread this message to the rest of the AP teachers. It is clearly system wide. We do have a failure to communicate the benefits; the REAL and ACTUAL benefits of AP courses.