This is the first article of our Student Series. Our goal is to improve the education and opportunities for our students. After all, Dr. Taschner announced, "The focus has been shifted because we've put a laser-like focus on students, and we do that bringing by great teachers, great curriculum, by making sure students have the resources they needed - things that had gone by the wayside."
To deprive students of a chance to prepare for a college-level course is simply not right. Pre-AP curriculum is meant to prepare students for an Advanced Placement class the following year. Honors classes have the tendency to have a mixed group of kids: students with a drive to learn and those without that same energy. Some students do not even pick honors to be in their schedule.
Pre-AP
classes cover material faster, offer a challenging curriculum, and use tougher grading and tests. In an honors class, students get walked through the
basics - more time is spent on topics for all students. In tenth grade Honors English, four books were read with
movies watched after every book to reinforce understanding. Fewer comprehension skills, writing
techniques, vocabulary expansion skills were taught. Meanwhile,
Pre-AP students were ready to work on college-level essays in preparation
for the following year in AP.
English is
not the only area where the removal of Pre-AP would have an extremely negative
impact on the students. Biology and chemistry need Pre-AP classes. These
sciences are very involved and very broad when it comes to content - everything
is covered in these sciences. In the Pre-AP classes, introductory concepts are
taught so students aren’t overwhelmed next year in AP. Without Pre-AP, we would
have been so lost in AP Biology and would have not earned the scores we did on
the AP exam. In addition, we were in a class with other students who wanted to be
there, who wanted to learn, who did their work. A few of our honors classes had
students whose attendance was terrible.
With the
removal of Pre-AP, gifted and high achieving students will have a hindered education
due to the lack of enthusiasm from students who should not be in a class with expectations necessary in the Honors classes. Anyone who says that Honors will be enough preparation for those desiring AP classes is simply wrong. AP is not a joke. Students are treated like college students and are expected to perform all tasks- it's essential to have a strong work ethic. It’s sad to see the class we were once so involved in, one that prepared us for the direction we
were destined to go, just gone.
Written
By: Kayla Bock
(Past:
Pre AP English/Biology, AP Biology Current: AP US History/Language &
Composition)
&
Becca Kibler
(Past:
Pre AP Biology/Chemistry, AP Biology Current: AP Chemistry/Language &
Composition)
This article has a lot of assumptions of the reader. Being someone not from the district and now has a child in the elementary schools, I am not aware of the high school curriculum at all. Are there currently classes being offered as "regular", honors, pre-AP and AP? Who decides which students go into which class level?
ReplyDeleteIn the past, your teacher gives you a recommendation as to which class you should go into the following year. As of now, that process has stopped and the students pick what they assume are the best for them. If your schedule does not comply with all of the classes you want to take, you are put into a different level class other than what you selected. From there, if you are not happy, you can talk to your guidance counselor and figure out the best schedule that works for you and your learning level.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kayla and Becca, for writing this article from your perspective. I have a student who benefited from being able to take pre-AP biology and pre-AP English. She was more prepared for the rigor of AP biology this year, and also went into an AP course without a pre-AP level (European history) with a better understanding of the workload and rigor that would be demanded of her. She has compared her assignments and workload to those of her peers in the honors level courses and found they were meaningfully different. She, like the two of you, thinks that the elimination of the pre-AP level is a big mistake. Again, thank you for letting your student voices be heard!
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