I have been at one school for 39 years, first as an English teacher (24) and then
as the librarian(15) and have watched and participated in changes that have not
always improved the quality of education for our students. When I was in the
classroom, I taught Honors English, Regular English and Basic English. It wasn't
perfect, but it "worked" most of the time when the teachers tried to make it work.
Now in our school we have AP or Pre-AP and College Bound ONLY. Today our ninth
grade English teacher has 4 classes of Pre-AP students, and she and others have 7
classes of College Bound. There are no basic classes.
This is a medium sized rural school whose population has stayed the same and that
used to have one Honors (Pre-AP) class to 6 to 8 regular and basic classes. The
ratio of AP to College Bound is much greater than that today. What is happening?
Is everybody in our school Pre-AP and College Bound? There is no evidence that our
students are getting brighter and preforming better. If your child were bright
but not really an AP student, would you want his/her education to grind to a halt
in a College Bound class with 13 students who aren't really college bound? Is that
the reason (along with social ones) that parents are insisting that their children
be in Pre-AP? A teacher in our school made the comment at the beginning of the
year that he makes the same accommodations for all students in his college bound
biology class. We just had a class of 30 college bound students in the library
researching the 20's; there were two teachers team teaching, one an English
teacher and another a special ed teacher; the library clerk and I helped as well. I
am not complaining about helping, but I used to teach classes of 25 to 30
sophomores by myself, and most of the students grasped the research process.
One of our English teachers who initially supported dropping the basic English
classes and putting everyone together is now proposing going back to the "old"
method. She is very frustrated with how little our students know and how poorly
they perform. If you can answer a couple of questions or comment about anything
that truly works for you or your school, I would appreciate it. I have loved being
an educator and agonize daily about the state of education.
1. What is the percentage of AP or Pre-AP students in your school?
2. Are the College Bound students truly college level students?
3. Do you have meaningful discussion in your school about what is taught at each
grade level?
4. Are your students grouped?
5. Do you have team teaching to try to accommodate mainstreaming?
I will stop here with the questions. Any helpful comments will be appreciated.
George Anne Draper
Wynne, AR, Wynne High School
gdraper@wynne.k12.ar.us
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