I went to a High Schools That Work network meeting yesterday.  It was fairly interesting - three schools shared strategies that they have been using to improve their schools of the past few years.

One of the topics covered was how to improve enrollment in AP courses.  The Assistant Superintendent for Mount Olive school district gave a presentation on their new system.  Rather than make strict standards for admitting students into honors and AP courses, students can simply request to be in them.

It’s not quite the utter chaos you may be imagining.  Students do have to meet with guidance counselors and parents if they want to waiver themselves in in this way.  However, the ultimate goal is allow students to select themselves for honors and AP courses.  If they are committed to doing work at this caliber, they should be able to.

Although this is a relatively new program, the school district had some data to support the notion that it is good for the students and the AP program as a whole.

Enrollment definitely increased.  Many students apparently wanted to be in Honors or AP and they were being held back by test scores, grades, or something.

The scores of these students were similar to the ones of the students who were enrolled through the normal process.  In the first two years, there was a slight difference - about a half a point on average - in AP test scores.  This would be expected, because many of the students waivering in to the course did not have several years experience in honors courses.  They lacked the same educational background, but still did almost as well as their Honors-tracked peers.

An important point to make is that teachers are not required to water down their instruction at all.  These students may not have the same preparation as their peers, but they choose to enter these courses because they are committed.  They may struggle at first, but with support they can rise to the bar.  High expectations and student commitment are a strong combination.

There is still one weeding-out mechanism as well.  Students are required to complete a hefty summer work assignment.  This is to introduce students to the workload of AP and Honors courses.  If they suddenly feel that they’ve gotten in over their heads, they can duck out before September rolls around.  Most of them utilize the support systems in place - with extra tutoring and help - and rise to the occassion.

I think this is a novel idea and one that should be spread to other schools.  Honors classes used to be a way to separate out the chosen students - the one that showed potential.  Instead, they should be a way for students to self select whether or not they want to learn.

Many of our students show promise, but they are being held back by any number of reasons.  Maybe they are bored in their regular classes.  Maybe the other students, who don’t have the same commitment to learning, are side tracking those classes.  Maybe they simply do what is expected of them.

By allowing students to select themselves for honors and AP, we can make a difference in student achievement.  Seems like a great plan to me.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Education, Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.