In his 4/25/01 AERA-J post "AP Article" (AP = Advanced Placement),
Richard Iuli pointed to an interesting online review (1) of the AP
Program. That article and companion articles listed below (3,4,6) may
be of interest to some subscribers of the above lists.
In addition to the views expressed in refs. 3-6, the migration of
Iuli's seminal AERA-J post "AP Students" of 4/13/01 to the above
lists (minus POD plus Biolab) has generated a large number of
AP-related posts among educational researchers (AERA-J: 39 posts),
Physicists (Phys-L: 50 posts; PhysLrnR: 15 posts; Physhare: 18 posts
); Biologists (Biopi-L: 5 posts); and AP Physics Teachers (unknown
because the Digests were not sent to me even though I subscribed).
All of these posts are available at the above indicated archives for
the month April 2001.
A QUESTION: To what extent. if any, does the AP program currently
promote the reform of K-12 education as advocated by physics Nobelist
Leon Lederman.(7)
Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
REFERENCES
1. Debra Viadero, "AP Program Assumes Larger Role," Education Week,
April 25, 2001; online at
<http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=32ap.h20> : "Expressing
the belief that 'America's young people are a lot smarter than we
give them credit for,' then-U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W.
Riley issued a challenge to the nation's high schools in February of
last year. Offer at least one Advanced Placement course by the fall
of 2001, he said at a Washington gathering, and add one more each
year for the next 10 years.. . . Since 1990, the number of AP exams
taken by students across the country has grown more than two-fold,
rising to 1.27 million last year, according to the College Board, the
New York City-based nonprofit group that administers the program. . .
The program is looking especially good to policymakers as calls rise
at the national level for a historic shift in the mission of the
American high school. Rather than sort college-bound students from
the non-college- bound, as they traditionally have tended to do, high
schools ought to prepare each and every student for postsecondary
study, some education leaders are suggesting. For growing numbers of
high school communities, the Advanced Placement program is being seen
as a quick, reliable means to that end. . . . . Federal aid to
encourage states to participate in the program nearly quintupled from
$2.7 million in 1998-99 to $15 million this fiscal year. Twenty-six
states also provide their own money to help schools cover exam-fee
payments, grants for teachers' professional development related to AP
courses, instructional materials, equipment, and other incentives to
stimulate program participation-particularly among underserved
groups. . . . Among the schools that don't accept program coursework
at all is Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. 'AP is a
second-rate alternative to advanced teaching,' contended Leon
Botstein,(2) Bard's president and an outspoken critic of traditional
high schools. 'It's a test-driven curriculum, and that's completely
anathema to anything a university does.'"
2. Leon Botstein, "Jefferson's Children: Education and the promise of
American Culture" (Doubleday, 1997).
3. Anne MacLeod Weeks, "To AP or Not to AP?" Education Week, February
7, 2001; online at
<http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=21weeks.h20> :" . . savvy
parents and students . . . . see the AP program as a route to college
acceptance, rather than as an intellectually stimulating growth
experience. This causes students who don't even like literature to
put themselves through the AP English paces in order to impress that
admissions officer who will ask how competitive their course loads
are. It also leads national newsmagazines to rate the quality of a
high school based on the number of AP courses the school offers.
Enrollment numbers are equally impressive to such raters."
5. W. Lichten, "Whither Advanced Placement," Education Policy
Archives 8(29), 2000; <http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n29.html>: "This is
a review of the Advanced Placement (AP) Program. In disagreement with
claims of the College Board, there is firm evidence that the average
test performance level has dropped. The College Board's scale and
claims for AP qualification disagree seriously with college
standards. A majority of tests taken do not qualify. It appears that
'advanced placement' is coming closer to 'placement.' This article
recommends that the College Board's policy of concentrating on
numbers of participants should be changed to an emphasis on student
performance and program quality."
6. Lynn Olson, "Study Links High School Courses With College
Success," Education Week, June 2, 1999; online at
<http://www.edweek.com/ew/vol-18/38grad.h18>: "The study used
complex statistical analyses to determine which of 24 variables had
the strongest influence on whether young people earned a bachelor's
degree. The academic quality and intensity of the high school
curriculum were measured on a graded scale. AT THE TOP OF THE SCALE
WERE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO TOOK: MORE THAN ONE ADVANCED PLACEMENT
COURSE; more than three years each of English and mathematics
(including math beyond Algebra 2); a minimum of two years each of
laboratory sciences, foreign languages, and history; and no remedial
math or English courses." (My CAPS.)
7. L.M. Lederman, 1999. "A science way of thinking." Education Week,
16 June; 1999 <http://www.edweek.org/ew/1999/40leder.h18>: "A
21st-century person must be armed with a science overview to be able
to adapt to these extraordinary events, to be employed by or
otherwise profit from the new industries that will emerge, and to
participate in the decisions that society must make as to the pace
and direction of this revolution. We must also be aware of the darker
sides of technology. One, most relevant to our concerns, is the
inequitable distribution of the benefits of technology that increases
the gap between rich and poor. Equal access to knowledge would seem
to be essential to address this problem. The key is clearly in how we
adapt our educational system to this unsettling new world: nuclear
tests, tobacco, DNA, AIDS, global warming, population, genetically
engineered foods, gene testing, gene therapy, creationism, pollution,
energy, education, Internet, Microsoft. Where will the wisdom emerge
that will sort out the emotional from the rational? Is there a future
for democratic consensus, or must we surrender to 'experts' to steer
the ship of state away from the shoals of disaster toward the calm
waters of health and prosperity? Again, the key is education. The
goals of education in democratic societies must be responsive. . .
Lest our sermon be misunderstood, the changing nature of our society
increases the need for our students to absorb some of the wisdom of
the humanities and the experiences and lessons of the social
sciences. The school reform we are proposing will serve to lower the
barriers between physics, chemistry, and biology and seek the
unifying strands. But we dream also of doing the same for the
separations between the sciences, the arts and humanities, and the
social sciences. The more science we know, the more feasible the
dream appears. Why is this important? If we are successful and our
students/citizens have comfortable access to the knowledge base and
to the processes whereby this base is expanded, that still would
leave us seriously incomplete. The schools also must address the
social and cultural adjustments that the millennium epoch requires.
Our students must understand what it means to live in a democratic
society. 'Wisdom,' a wise man said, 'makes itself manifest in the
application of knowledge to human needs.' "