I just came across a blog describing an Ohio State professor's experience grading the APUSH Essays. He outlines his thoughts over the course of the week.
Some points I found interesting:
- Graders are evaluated based on how well the scores they gave matched up with the relative multiple choice score and the mean score in the room.
- He is surprised by all the random facts the high school teachers knew about the topic in comparison to him.
- He is shocked at how poor some of the essays were being that the students were in an AP Class. He states:
"I had always thought of AP as an honors program, so I’m mystified by how many dismal essays we endure. I ask around and get a range of answers. Some say that entire school districts now put all kids into AP classes. Others say that students elect to take AP classes for the extra point it adds to their GPA. Others blame No Child Left Behind. One describes the test as a “cash cow,” implying that fee revenues encourage the College Board to allow anyone to take it. High-school teachers, though, emphasize factors that would affect performance, pointing out that the antebellum period was covered six months earlier and that students are stressed from taking multiple AP exams in the same week. Nevertheless, it’s clear that Advanced Placement no longer necessarily denotes academic excellence and that many students with very little aptitude take AP courses and tests."
Because he is a college professor, I think it is interesting to hear his perspective. I've always seen AP as a higher achieving class than others, so it is strange to hear him categorize it as a course no longer of such high quality. What do you guys think?
This is a really interesting post, Olivia. I think that Christopher Phelps is absolutely correct in his assumption that students just take AP classes just for that extra grade point or even just to say that they are enrolled in an AP course. Students today don't see AP classes for what they truly are which is college level classes and that is what Christopher Phelps is really pointing out. The AP courses aren't about going above and beyond anymore, now it is just expected.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Olivia! I also agree with Christopher Phelps. A lot of students take 4 or 5 AP classes with the sole purpose of gaining more credit. I also agree that the money the college board gains through these tests causes problems. The system encourages everyone to take AP classes, because the more people who take them, the higher the profit for the college board. However, the college board encourages this without warning students that AP courses are college level courses. Several students who take AP classes really believe that they are just high school classes that add more points to their GPA.
ReplyDeleteThis is a unique perspective on Ap classes. I think it is true that Ap classes have shifted away from classes that denote a collegelike rigorous cirriculum to still being a high school class meant to prepare us for a college class. Not to detract from how hard they are, but I think it's shifted in mentality for better or worse. Having said that, they can still be very hard classes and our school district superintendent has said that it is their motive to expose students to these types of classes, no matter their performance, because we are still in high school and need to learn in a challenging environment. So maybe it isn't the goal of ap classes to have students who are already prepared, but to expose them so they can be prepared in the future. It is high school still after all.
ReplyDeleteThis is a unique perspective on Ap classes. I think it is true that Ap classes have shifted away from classes that denote a collegelike rigorous cirriculum to still being a high school class meant to prepare us for a college class. Not to detract from how hard they are, but I think it's shifted in mentality for better or worse. Having said that, they can still be very hard classes and our school district superintendent has said that it is their motive to expose students to these types of classes, no matter their performance, because we are still in high school and need to learn in a challenging environment. So maybe it isn't the goal of ap classes to have students who are already prepared, but to expose them so they can be prepared in the future. It is high school still after all.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a bit bizarre for a professional to describe essays written by high school students in such a way. It feels a bit discouraging to me actually. I think if a student considering to challenge themselves by taking an AP class were to read something like this, they would feel somewhat uncomfortable and afraid of the judgement of the readers. I understand that the expectations of an AP student are higher, but I don't feel it's appropriate to describe work such as this as "dismal."
ReplyDeleteAs everyone before has said, I too agree with Phelps' point of view. Another thing that I feel people often overlook is that the readers are human, too. I didn't realize how much work they had to go through and for how long in order to read our DBQs and FRQs until I read his post. It seems like a very tiring and monotonous process, and I have a greater appreciation for the AP graders and what they have to do. What do you think are reasons why so many people are willing to become AP graders?
ReplyDeleteI think this post is interesting to read and absorb considering our school environment. Personally, I don't feel Los Altos teachers and faculty push students to take AP classes just because. I do think that students elect to take AP classes at their own risk, and choose to take the AP test in order to opt out of future classes and have selling points on their college applications, not just because they feel pressured by teachers to take them. It's interesting to hear a professional share his thoughts on students' motivation for taking AP classes, but I agree that it's a little close minded of him to generalize based on the quality of some students' essays.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Olivia! I think this is a super interesting way of looking at AP classes, and I agree with everyone else who is saying that AP classes have kind of shifted over the past couple of years. I think it also depends on the specific classes, though, since classes like APUSH and BC Calculus are notorious for being super difficult. On the other hand, I definitely see the mentality of APs being basically expected, even at LAHS. My sister, who was a junior four years ago, was shocked when I told her that there weren't any regular physics classes anymore, so if you wanted to take physics at all it had to be an AP Physics class. I guess this can give all of the students at LAHS an advantage over the rest of the nation because we all get an extra boost from the weighted points in our GPAs, but I think it also kind of diminishes the value of AP classes in general, since everybody is expected to take them.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Olivia! Many students today take AP's for the GPA boost without thinking about what AP classes were meant to do, allow high school students with skill and enthusiasm for a subject to take a college level class. Today students take them almost half-haphazardly as part of the high school routine and it isn't their fault as taking them has become the norm for getting into good colleges.
ReplyDeleteHe does have some interesting points. However, does he have proof that the essays actually got worse? Maybe since he just got into it now, he thought that the essays provided by 16 and 17 year-olds would be as good as his colleagues', who have been writing essays for a long, long time. I think it just has to do with the inexperience of high school students when writing essays. He seems to have had this image that because they were taking an AP test, that they are somehow so much better than all other high school students.
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