Education is Not Equal Opportunity for All Students
Wouldn’t you think that all AP classes were created equally? After all, every student who takes that AP course will take the exact same AP exam in May. Makes sense, right? Wrong!
Ii find it really disturbing to see the disparity in the quality of the preparation students receive in standardized AP courses from coast to coast. As a college advisor, I work with public and private high school students from Monterey to San Francisco in my offices, and nationwide online. I coach them on how to study for exams and how to implement projects that will get them into top colleges. And, to ensure that they maintain decent GPA’s, I teach them how to study for class and AP exams.
Here are 2 very different examples of how teachers prepare their students for the big test at the end of the year:
AP Teacher #1:
“Joe’s” teacher at his elite private school organized a thick reader filled with photos, images, charts, and timelines that students must read and complete as part of their coursework. His teacher also gave the students multiple practice exams (real AP tests that students across the US have taken in the past) to prepare them for the big AP exam that they will take in May. When students receive this type of structured introduction to key points and topics that will be on the official exam, they’ll undoubtedly ace the final exam at the end of the year. It’s almost impossible for these students to receive anything less than a 3 (on a scale of 1 to 5; 5 being the top score) simply because every lecture, discussion, homework assignment, class projects, films, and papers were designed to give the students the foundation they need to get 4’s and 5’s. This is the ideal way to teach AP courses.
AP Teacher #2:
Just yesterday, on the other hand, I met with “Jessica,” a student who attends a public school with a history of students who don’t pass the AP exams (scores of 1 or 2). She is on spring break this week and asked me to help her organize a plan to study for her AP United States History exam. A great student with a 4.0 GPA, I was prepared to suggest my regular recommendations for AP test prep. What I learned from her about the poor preparation she has received so far was gut wrenching. Jessica’s teacher has been pregnant most of the school year and she just left on maternity leave a few weeks ago (just 6 weeks before the AP exam). The teacher had assigned homework from the textbook but didn’t offer a comprehensive reader filled with vital information and facts that she’ll need to pass the exam. When I quizzed her on the US presidents, their claims to fame, and other monumental historical events, I found that she had a general foundation but certainly not enough depth to answer the difficult questions she’s expected to know on the big day. With her preparation to date, I wouldn’t expect her to receive anything above a 2 (on a scale of 1 to 5).
That’s when I decided to even the playing field. I asked Joe if I could copy his reader to give to Jessica. Not feeling threatened because of her apparent lack of preparation, he graciously allowed me to make a copy. When Jessica looked through the reader, her face lit up. She loved how everything was organized and I could see that US history was beginning to all come together for her. Then I ordered the AP United States History workbook so she could read tips on how to ace the exam and take several practice exams. Jessica was thrilled to have these tools and promised to read through the entire reader and do all of the worksheets over her spring break. I felt like Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor! This type of systematic inequity in our educational system is going to lead to a class division where only the rich get into the best colleges – further shrinking our middle class. Not good for anyone.
I would hope that teachers who teach standardized classes like AP or IB classes would offer their students the tools they need to do well on the end-of-the year exams. I would love to see students who attend elite private schools donate their expensive flash cards, readers, and volumes of practice exams to students who can’t afford these types of luxuries. Hmm – sounds like a new project in the making!