| AP contract requires year-long commitment (4/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Sanyee Yuan | |
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Students who plan to sign up for Advanced Placement courses next year must sign a contract agreeing to take the AP exam and remain with the same teacher in designated courses for the entire year. Principal Andy Ishibashi implemented the contract after students returned from spring break. According to Ishibashi, the contract is the result of brainstorming with department heads and the administrative team. The AP contract addresses issues concerning the budget crisis. Mid-year drops lead to unbalanced class sizes, and un-administered AP tests reduce the school’s funding, according to School Site Council chair and math department head Tom Chambers, who explained that allowing students to drop leads to smaller class sizes that are an inefficient use of scarce funding. Class sizes also factor into an AP teacher’s prep period: If a class size drops below 20, the teacher does not get an AP prep period. “Every 20 exams pay for a .2 teacher, so if we give 100 exams, that funds one teacher,” Chambers said. “We divide the number of exams given by 100 and multiply that by the teacher salary, and this is the amount of money which the district gives us for AP preps.” According to Chambers, the 2,786 exams that students took last year generated $2.16 million for the current school year. The AP fund pays for prep periods, reduces class sizes and pays for counselors. According to counselor and former AP coordinator Bob Jow, only five percent of students who sign up for AP courses end up dropping the course. However, according to Chambers, a small number of drops can have a large impact. The 111 students who paid for the exam last year but did not take them could have added $77,000 to the current school year’s budget, he explained. English Department head Svein Arber agreed that the AP program is critical for the maintenance of current staff levels. He also approved of the principle behind the contract, which is to ask students to demonstrate commitment to the course. “I believe that if a student takes an AP course, the course should have a commitment attached and should not be taken frivolously,” he said. “A student should be willing to affirm that he or she plans to take the course seriously, so I have no problem with a formal agreement.” Jow does not see the AP contract as binding. “I call it information and a set of expectations,” he said. “If a student takes five AP classes and finds that he has taken more than he should and wants to drop one or two, that’s okay. Consider a college freshman who can drop a class and how there’s no penalty for that.” Ishibashi said that the contract does allow for certain exceptions. Students in AP Economics and AP Government classes will be able to drop after a semester and only take the AP test affiliated with that semester’s work if they do not wish to continue with the second part of the course. If students wish to switch from AP Calculus BC to AP Calculus AB, Ishibashi said specific cases would be a counseling issue. Other case-by-case exceptions could arise. “If a student is having a nervous breakdown before the test, I will meet with the student, try to help the student, and if he’s freaking out, of course I won’t make him take the test,” he said. “Additionally, if a student falls behind, we won’t force him to fail his classes.” He added that he hopes the contract will serve as a motivator for students to assess the number of AP courses they can handle. “Before signing the contract, they should think, ‘Should I really sign up for five or six AP classes?’ and make realistic choices for their schedules,” Ishibashi said. “You guys are my kids, and I care about you as if you were my own. At the same time, I want to teach you responsibility by signing up for a class and following through with it.” Another counselor, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed disapproval of the contract. “Most of the counselors were not in favor of another piece of paper which puts more pressure on the students on choosing a class for APs,” the counselor said. “Personally speaking, I don’t feel we can justify a teacher’s position by implementing a more stringent directive on the students.” The counselor also criticized the lack of input that the principal received from the faculty and the students. “None of the faculty knew about it, and neither did the AP teachers, union members or counselors before the faculty meeting preceding spring break,” the counselor said. “Ishibashi stated that he would listen to comments; however, when we came back, (the contract) was already printed.” According to the counselor, the contract deviates from the Lowell Plan, which values student and faculty input into decisions affecting the school. “Choice is a very important part of Lowell and the Lowell Plan,” the counselor said. The anonymous counselor said the form could deter students who are minorities from enrolling in the AP program. “The contract places one more obstacle in front of them, and instead of trying, they may shy away,” the counselor said. A group of “Outraged Lowell AP Students” penned a notice that they sent to registries on April 2 calling for students to protest the new policy by writing letters to the principal. “Adding the ‘no drop’ condition infringes on the rights of the Lowell students to determine their own schedules and course of study,” the students wrote. But according to Ishibashi, being able to drop classes is not a right, but a privilege. “Before coming to Lowell, during my 21 years of education, I had never seen students just drop classes all the way up to the first marking period,” he said. “It’s not about the battles, but about what’s right. What are we teaching students if they’re enrolling in classes and dropping them?” According to Ishibashi, if students in AP classes want to drop their courses after self-scheduling, they need to let the administration know in the summer, before the fall semester starts. “We would like to discourage students from dropping classes and move in a direction where students don’t drop classes,” he said. Junior Eleanor Yu expressed concern over the loss of the drop option. “It’s better to drop a class than end up failing, because only you know what you’re capable of,” she said. “Sometimes you can’t handle it and don’t realize when you’ve overextended yourself.” Senior Arin Vaillancourt disagreed with the contract’s requirement that students stay with the same teacher for designated courses. “It’s unfair if you’re stuck with a teacher you don’t like for the whole year,” she said. “The contract won’t dissuade people from overworking themselves; it’ll lead to students who are more stressed because they’re stuck with teachers who can’t help them learn.” Vaillancourt also said that the school should not force students to take the AP test. “If a student feels that he will do poorly on the test and get a score of one or two and doesn’t want to suffer the embarrassment, he should have the option not to take the test,” she said. However, Arber said that only a handful of students score below a three on the AP English exams. “In any event, is it the worst thing in the world to get a two on the exam?” he asked. “Are we so full of ourselves that we’re not ready to make the class material more important than the score? Most admissions offices are more interested in seeing that you’re challenging yourself with the course. Sometimes, I’m not sure if it’s right to have a winner mentality. The setbacks in life teach us as much as the successes.” If students feel unprepared for the exam, Chambers said that they should attempt to talk with their AP teachers instead of immediately refusing to take the test. “They can get help from their teachers and from the department head,” he said. “Regarding the contract, I support the idea of kids taking the classes which they register for. If we schedule courses for them, we would like them to complete the course, take the exam, get educated and get money to support the school.” |
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to listen.
