I have been an avid follower of Jay Mathews' work since starting here at Fordham, but his recent argument with a Fairfax County parent over Fairfax's decision to get rid of honors courses across the district caused me to panic. (FPCS has three standard tracks:? general, honors and A.P. courses). Their point of contention was Jay's suggestion that the district instead eliminate the general-level classes, calling on the schools to place all students in at least honors courses, giving them the skills needed to read, write and manage time well enough to succeed after high school. At this point my anxiety set in.
From my experience teaching at an under-performing high school in a blue-collar area of Metro-Detroit, I am all-too-familiar with mislabeled classes and the problems they create. The class I taught was an A.P. Government course, the same course I took in high school with a group of top-notch students, over 90% of which took and passed the A.P. Exam. The course I taught, however, looked nothing like what I had previously encountered. The chapter exams were all multiple-choice and the questions (and answers) were given to the students literally word-for-word during the review. Any student putting forth even the slightest amount of effort (you'd be surprised how many didn't) had no problem receiving an ?A? in the class. Yet, less than 10% of the class took the A.P. exam and I can count on one hand the number that passed.
Keep in mind, these students entered this class at a much lower level in terms of reading ability, prior knowledge, and previous workloads than my peers and I did. Regardless of that fact, the students that did engage were stretched to their limits and made great gains academically. I was very proud of a good bunch of them that worked their tails off to improve. But at the end of the year, many of them who aced the class were under the impression that they had what it takes to be fine at the collegiate level. A few of them did; most would be in for a big surprise.
I look back in solace knowing that these students left the year much more prepared than when they entered. Yet I can't help but cringe when I think about how these students had been lied to: they weren't truly doing A.P.-level work.
Don't get me wrong, I applaud and agree with Jay for calling on one of the nation's best school districts to eradicate environments where apathy is standard amongst students and where teachers accept it for the sake of not wanting to combat it on a day-to-day basis. It doesn't take an expert to know that on the whole, students will be lackadaisical when left alone; raising the bar can be done (as Jay points out) but doing it requires investing in that daily struggle. It can be done and it should be done, but FCPS should do it in general-level classes as opposed to diluting honors-level courses and misleading students.
-Chris Irvine
