{"id":1207,"date":"2019-03-27T03:54:11","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T03:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2019-03-27T03:54:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T03:54:11","slug":"the-standardized-test-monopoly-that-secretly-runs-americas-high-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=1207","title":{"rendered":"The Standardized Test Monopoly That Secretly Runs America’s High Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April, my 10th-grade son did something I never managed to do in any class ever:<\/span> He finished his entire world history textbook. All 1,258 pages of it. Some parents might breathe a sigh of relief over this accomplishment (as in, whew, my kid is not<\/em> a slacker), but I was skeptical.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you actually learn anything?\u201d I asked him. \u201cYeah, kinda,\u201d he shrugged, though he admitted that he whipped through some chapters in two or three days. Say what? \u201cWell, we had to finish so we can get ready for the test,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ah, yes, the test. By that, he means the Advanced Placement World History Exam, taken by high school students across the United States last Thursday. During the first two weeks of May, the College Board, the nonprofit organization that owns the SAT and the advanced placement program, administered AP exams in world history and 37 other subjects. About 2.7 million high schoolers across the nation took a total of 4.9 million AP exams, which the College Board called \u201cthe culmination of their hard work in AP courses throughout the school year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AP exam is a product for which there is not a competitor.<\/p>\n

High school students like my son crank through chapters, study for hours each night, and take weekly tests because an AP class is supposed to be the equivalent of a college-level course. These teens hope to score high enough on the AP exam to earn college credit or to be placed in a more advanced course, which, given the ever-rising costs of college, seems like a smart move. And colleges, especially top ones, tell students that to be a competitive candidate for admissions, they should take the toughest classes possible, which generally means taking AP.<\/p>\n

Last year, Nat Malkus, a researcher from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning, Washington, D.C.-based think tank, wrote that \u201cAP might be the single happiest education story of the century,\u201d in part because it has \u201csubstantially increased access to advanced coursework for all public school students, and the College Board has made that access possible by taking concrete steps to maintain program quality and increase access to underserved students.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible the AP exam really does prepare students for higher education, while\u00a0saving\u00a0them money in the process. But it\u2019s also likely, as some critics say, that the tests don\u2019t do much other than stress\u00a0teens out, contribute\u00a0to the college admissions arms race, and earn\u00a0the College Board plenty of cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are agnostic about AP,\u201d\u00a0says Bob Schaeffer, the public education director of\u00a0FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.\u00a0\u201cTo the extent that they serve as a gateway rather than a gatekeeper to access higher education, that\u2019s fine.\u201d But\u00a0he adds that \u201cthe Pollyanna picture that the College Board paints to sell its product leaves out some important facts. Many colleges are questioning the value of AP scores and some are moving away from automatically granting credit because they do not see some of those courses, which are largely test-prep oriented, as being the equivalent of a real college course.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP is now the largest program at the College Board, larger than the SAT in terms of revenue. \u201cThat\u2019s why they\u2019re fanning it\u2014it\u2019s a product for which there is not a competitor,\u201d says Schaeffer. \u201cFor the SAT, there are two major competitors, one the ACT, which more kids take than the SAT, and the second, the growing number of test-optional colleges. But AP, they have a monopoly on granting [college] credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaeffer says the College Board\u2019s nonprofit status is a meaningless distinction. \u201cAll that it means is that there are no shareholders to divvy up excess loot,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are a billion-dollar-a-year corporation which uses its excess revenue\u2014and they are substantial over its cost\u2014to build fancy buildings down on Wall Street and to pay its executives high six figure, if not seven figure salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The College Board reported about $77 million in annual profit and $834 million in net assets in 2015<\/span>. David Coleman, the president of the College Board earned nearly $900,000 in 2015, reported Reuters, and his predecessor, Gaston Caperton, who stepped down in 2012, was widely criticized for his $1.3 million annual salary.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally and absolutely, we\u2019re a nonprofit organization,\u201d says Trevor Packer, College Board\u2019s senior vice president of AP and Instruction. Packer, who has been the head of the AP program since 2003, has no business background and is a former educator with a background in English literature. \u201cIf the College Board were seeking to bring in money, they would bring in someone very different. Our board of trustees would not have an academic focused on curriculum design running the College Board\u2019s largest program,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally and absolutely, we\u2019re a nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n

Along with using revenue to cover staffing and operating costs, such as administering and scoring tests nationwide, the College Board, says Packer, uses part of the AP exam fees\u2014$93 per test\u2014to support AP programs and subsidize low income students\u2019 exam costs. When Packer started at the College Board in 2003, very few low-income students were taking AP classes. \u201cOnly 45,000 students in the United States took AP in 1998. That\u2019s now grown to 21 percent of the AP exams being taken by low income students,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where the argument really breaks down where people say the College Board is financially motivated,\u201d says Packer. \u201cIf that\u2019s where our concern were, it would actually be a good thing for a smaller proportion of low income students to take the AP exam in proportion to full-fee students. Our subsidies are so significant to our students that that would work against profitability.\u201d<\/p>\n

In College Board\u2019s survey of 2016 test takers, \u201cOver 80 percent\u00a0of AP students agree that after taking AP courses, they feel more confident about doing well in college,\u201d as stated on their\u00a0website:<\/p>\n

\n

Ultimately, says Packer, he\u2019s held accountable for three things: \u201cAre we helping more students learn at a level where they qualify for college credit, and achieve college cost savings, and perform at a higher level in the courses they take?\u201d<\/p>\n

Denise Pope isn\u2019t fully convinced that the AP program is achieving those goals<\/span>. A\u00a0professor at Stanford University\u2019s Graduate School of Education\u2014and one of the authors of a\u00a0well-respected research paper\u00a0for which she reviewed nearly two-dozen studies on the AP program\u2014Pope says many college-bound students (and their parents) see AP classes as merely a tool in the college admissions game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not want to sound overly negative. They are turning kids onto learning in a way that many many kids would not experience if there was not AP,\u201d says Pope \u201cBut for your average kid like yours or mine who are going to be college bound because of who their parents are and where they grow up, there is really this problem of how many (AP classes students are taking)\u00a0and what are the colleges asking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you have a high-stakes, one-shot test, you\u2019re focused on how to beat the exam. It\u2019s human nature.<\/p>\n

One student Pope talked to took 12 AP classes over the course of high school and thought he should enter college as a junior. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Oh no, honey, that\u2019s not how it works.\u2019 But in his eyes, he\u2019s taking the class, he\u2019s getting a four\u00a0or five\u00a0on the test, and he\u2019s assuming that when he enters college all those credits are going to go,\u201d says Pope. \u201cAnd he busted himself to take 12 AP classes in high school, which is a lot. And he\u2019s looking at me, like, What are you saying<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiyomi Morrison, a 19-year-old who graduated from Ram\u00f3n C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts High School in Los Angeles in 2016, is headed to UCSB\u00a0in the fall after taking a gap year. Morrison took five AP classes\u2014two in her junior year and three in her senior year\u2014but she isn\u2019t sure yet how much credit UCSB will give her for her AP exam scores. However, a friend who will enroll at Cal State Long Beach will \u201cpass out of all the beginning math and English classes,\u201d says Morrison.<\/p>\n

A survey by the College Board of 2016 AP exam takers found that the top two reasons students take AP exams are for college credit and placement\u2014not because they\u2019re interested in the subject. Pope contrasts those reasons with student responses from a survey done by Challenge Success, an organization she co-founded to help counter the overemphasis on grades, test scores, and rote memorization in schools. When Challenge Success asked students why they participated in an extracurricular activity, the top reason students gave is because they love it. Only about 20 percent of teens said that the main reason they\u2019re doing it is so that it will look good on their college applications. So when it comes to AP, \u201cWe say, gosh, this is a college-level course. if you don\u2019t love the subject, you\u2019re stuck doing a lot of work, that you don\u2019t love. Why would you make that choice?\u201d says Pope.<\/p>\n

Packer says that 23 states have passed legislation requiring\u00a0public colleges and universities to award credit for AP or IB (International Baccalaureate) scores. \u201cI like those policies because I believe policies should be based on research. If a score does predict how a student will perform, we believe students should have government-supported mandatory college credit.\u201d\u00a0 He recommends that students use AP Credit Policy, a tool on the College Board website that allows teens to type in the name of the college and\u00a0see exactly what the university is saying about how they will use AP credit. \u201cStudents are very pragmatic. They line up the chips and say, \u2018Well, this course is going to get me this, so I\u2019m going to be willing to do extra work in high school,\u2019\u201d says Packer.<\/p>\n

But Morrison also wishes more of her peers knew that \u201cIf you\u2019re just taking AP classes to look good for a college and you overwhelm yourself, it\u2019s going to be detrimental if you fail that class or you\u2019re miserable the whole year.\u201d She and her friends also found it odd that the more selective a college gets\u2014think Ivy League schools\u2014the less likely it is to accept AP credit. \u201cBut you need those AP classes [on your transcript] to get into that college so it is a little strange in that respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope warns that a student \u201ccan take every AP offered and not get into Harvard or Stanford or Berkeley or wherever you want to go to.\u2019 Knowing it\u2019s really a crapshoot, there\u2019s not really a whole lot of rhyme and reasons when you get to those top level colleges.\u201d And her research disputes the idea that AP classes directly cause students to be more likely to succeed in college.<\/p>\n

Students are very pragmatic. They line up the chips and say, well, this course is going to get me what I want.<\/p>\n

Packer agrees that Pope is right that the College Board should be \u201cvery careful about we claim. No one should be claiming that AP is a silver bullet in education,\u201d he says. \u201cAnyone who works in education knows there are no silver bullets. There is no holy water here.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, he says there is new experimental research \u201cthat does allow for causal claims to be made.\u201d Packer says \u201cthe signaling effects of AP scores can have a causal impact on what students choose to major in,\u201d and when a student is searching for validation, doing well in an AP class and on the exam can provide a confidence boost. Although he\u2019d love to see a study that explicitly tracked one group of kids who took AP and one that didn\u2019t, \u201cThe reasons those things aren\u2019t done, of course, is because of the ethics involved,\u201d says Packer. \u201cBecause there is a strong indication that there is a benefit of getting an AP class versus another class, so getting a bunch of kids and telling them, \u2018No you don\u2019t get this,\u2019\u201d would be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line, though, says Schaeffer, is that the problem with AP is that everything in terms of college credit depends on that final AP exam score. \u201cAnecdotal reports from many schools indicate that in the weeks before AP exam time, AP courses are test prep,\u201d says Schaeffer. \u201cWhen you have a high-stakes, one-shot exam like that, what happens at every level, from kindergarten through occupational life is that the course is focused on how to beat the exam and not on anything else. It\u2019s human nature,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, I asked my son how he felt now that the AP Exam was over<\/span>. \u201cRelieved,\u201d he said with a sigh. He told me how hungry he got during the four-hour long exam, and what he wrote about for the essay portion. \u201cBut do you think you\u2019ll remember anything you read in the book\u2014or that was talked about in class a month from now when school is?\u201d I asked. He rolled his eyes and smiled. \u201cYeah, I doubt it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut is that even the point?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
\n <\/span>
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Image via Pexels<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In April, my 10th-grade son did something I never managed to do in any class ever: He finished his entire world history textbook. All 1,258 pages of it. Some parents might breathe a sigh of relief over this accomplishment (as in, whew, my kid is not a slacker), but I was skeptical. \u201cDid you actually…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}