| Student-organized forum addresses policy that would affect AP classes (11/07) | | Print | |
| Written by Belinda Hu | |
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The Administrative Council will evaluate the impact of implementing a
policy in which some teachers teach Advanced Placement classes
year-round. The evaluation will include written feedback from teachers, AP test results and a survey, which will be given to students who were in yearlong AP classes this year. However, the process is not completely mapped out, according to Administrative Council chair and assistant principal Mary Streshly. “It may also depend on the impact on the master schedule and the outcome of spring arena,” she said. So far, only the English department has decided to use the full-year policy for all of its AP classes, according to Streshly. The “science and social studies departments have yet to get back to me,” she said. “The math department seems to have made the decision not to implement the mandate, though I have not received the official word.” The social science department is still debating whether or not to implement the policy, according to department head Alice Kwong-Ballard. Science department head Dacotah Swett and science teacher Dr. Ray Hill have decided to keep their AP Biology students for a year. “The principal wanted to experiment, so Dr. Hill and I decided to pilot our course,” Swett said. According to math department head Tom Chambers, “none of the AP math teachers are using the policy.” Student Body Council president Carter Chung and senior Belle Yan organized a student forum to voice students’ perspectives regarding the issue on Oct. 25. Fewer than 50 students attended the forum. “I expected more people,” Yan said. “I was hoping that the population of Lowell would be more active in retaining their student choice, but unfortunately, this was a slightly last-minute thing, which is probably why we didn’t attract as many people.” On Oct. 20, Yan created a petition urging the school to allow “all stakeholders, such as students, teachers and the community, to voice their opinions supporting or opposing this proposed policy change.” The petition asked that at least one representative from the Administrative Council attend the forum. A total of 156 students, as well as AP Calculus teacher Karl Hoffman and AP Economics teacher James Spellicy, signed an online version of the petition. One additional teacher and 283 additional students signed a paper version of the petition. At the Oct. 25 forum, students asked Streshly, English department head Svein Arber and other AP teachers about their opinions and shared their own views on the matter. Arber explained the reasoning behind the decision to students. “It was created when the process of audits or course plans were made,” he said. Streshly agreed. “The College Board requires teachers to send in syllabi to be approved,” she said. “The Board assumes the students have this teacher year-round. Students may not get all of the content covered because each teacher teaches differently. There is a possible skill gap.” In addition, Streshly believes teachers have better relationships with their students after a year. “When a student switches teachers, there is academic disruption,” she said. “Students who already had a certain teacher have to wait for new students to catch on.” Senior Takeshi Atwater-Kaji said that the new policy would reduce students’ choice. “I am sure the majority of the student body is not satisfied with every one of their teachers,” he said. “Furthermore, it is true staying with teachers eliminates student choice, because it cuts AP choices in half.” Hoffman suggested an alternative plan to yearlong AP classes at the forum. “If teachers collaborated with one another and created a syllabus that did not miss any of the materials, then it would be unnecessary to have this decision,” he said. “Calculus teachers already go in order of the book, so the math department is all on the same page.” Arber said that this idea would only work for classes that follow a chapter-by-chapter or chronological sequence. “In AP English, we do not necessarily follow chronology,” he said. |
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to listen.
