Monday, December 15, 2008

One district replaces AP courses- carefully

From the NYT:

"Scarsdale adjusts to life without advanced placement courses"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/education/07advanced.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Advanced+Placement&st=nyt

This article is interesting not only for its discussion of the pros and cons of AP courses, but also for the way the courses were phased out and replaced with an alternative, which included checking in advance with top universities.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, gosh, they replaced them with forethought and planning. What a concept! Of course, it also sounds like they are still pretty much preparing them for the test, just in a more reasonable way.

I also like the idea of getting college professors to help them design college-level courses. Sci-tech here is offering positions to people in "science/technology fields" to develop curriculum over the next year (somehow I thought they'd already done this) and get certified at the same time.

Don't even get me started on the guidance counseling in our high schools! Imagining them being proactive and reaching out to top universities to seek input, well, uh, no, not happening.