In the essay AP courses-Mounting Burden, Declining Benefit, the author Nathan Yan expresses his concern about the impact of AP classes have on students. He states that most of students who takes AP courses have an infatuation of passing the AP tests. Yan explains that with this kind of obsession, students are giving up their education, desire to learn and their understanding of the subject for a 3, 4, or 5 test score on the AP test. The writer was wondering that by giving up all these important characteristics of taking a class, a passing score on the AP test really mean anything much, let alone exemplify the readiness for college by AP students. Furthermore, he argues that by creating and teaching AP courses, teachers and administrators are
powerless when it comes to course curriculums. Teachers and administrators have to abide to the curriculums created by the College Board Association, and all they can do is teach and advise the students on how to pass a test, timing the test and guessing the answer, not actually focusing on teaching the material of that subject. One of the solution that Yan offers was that students need not to worrying about the AP test and focus on learning the class. He explains that by get the AP test off of the students’ minds, they can focus on learning and understanding the material, and by doing this, they can pass the test without the obsession that the author talked about. Moreover, teachers should treat every AP courses similar to a regular non-AP course. Teachers should concentrate on providing students with the knowledge of subjects that their students are learning and stop using class time as a place to train their students to take a test. Yan also argues that the best option was to eradicate the AP curriculums all together, by doing this, students will feel less pressure and will be able to learn better in their classes.
In “Actually, College Is Very Much Worth It” , Andrew J. Rotherham opens this piece addressing the issue of whether or not college is “worth it”. Rotherham effectively builds his case that college is essentially the better choice for us. Additionally, he acknowledges opposition of those who are anti-college. He allows us to have ‘free will” in the decision-making process, but presents the information in a way we cannot ignore the obvious facts. Rotherham conveys the idea that college does not guarantee a successful entry job, but it creates a path of opportunities for us.
In his essay, "Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A’s,” Staples claims that student grades are increasing for the wrong reasons, causing college degrees to become meaningless. Staples provides evidence that average grades have increased significantly over the last several decades, but claims that it is not because students are working harder. The real explanation for grade inflation, he argues, is the effect of grades on both students and their professors. Teachers give more A’s to receive better evaluations and increase job security. Students give more importance to their grades as a result of the rapidly increasing cost of a college education. Staples argues that modern
Introduction: In the essay America’s Most Overrated Product: The Bachelor’s Degree by Marty Nemko argues that attending college does not benefit most students. Many of us grow up believing that going to college is the best option to get good jobs, even if we did not do so well in college. In this essay, we explore statistics presented by Nemko to get a better idea if college is worth the time and money spent on the benefits of having a diploma.
In this society, almost every high schooler is told they need to go to college in order to be successful, but that is not necessarily true. Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill questioned if everyone needs college to be successful in their article, “Should Everyone Go to College?”. In the article, Owen and Sawhill discuss that even though college is very helpful for many people, but for some the benefits of a college education do not outweigh the costs. Owen and Sawhill discuss this and show the statistics on the pricing of college and general student success throughout the article. Overall, this article does a very well job showing ethical appeals with statistics, does an average job with emotional appeal, and does a very well job showing logic
In the article “College is Not a Commodity. Stop treating it like one,” Hunter Rawlings explains how people today believe that college is a commodity, but he argues that it’s the student’s efforts; which gives value to their education. Rawlings states that in recent years college has been looked at in economic terms, lowering its worth to something people must have instead of earn. As a professor Rawlings has learned that the quality of education has nothing to do with the school or the curriculum, but rather the student’s efforts and work ethic. Rawlings explains the idea that the student is in charge of the success of his or her own education, and the professor or school isn’t the main reason why a student performs poorly in a class. Rawlings
However, such accusations such as laziness and entitlement, although common, have been prevalent amongst those of college age as proven in “A’s for Everyone.” Shepard had investigated the cause behind this and had put the blame on grade inflation in the years prior to entering college, the pressure to get superb grades due to high tuition costs, and most importantly the belief that “effort” constitutes a grade bonus. However, if one has entered the school system in America, one could see the relative ease in which one could improve their grades through inordinate amounts of extra credit. Multiple students have heard and even seen fellow students ask their parents to even come in for meetings of which equate to blaming their child’s poor grades on the teacher and harassing said teacher to allow their child, soon to be a hardworking, productive citizen of society, to get the “grade they
The right and privilege to higher education in today’s society teeters like the scales of justice. In reading Andrew Delbanco’s, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, it is apparent that Delbanco believes that the main role of college is to accommodate that needs of all students in providing opportunities to discover individual passions and dreams while furthering and enhancing the economic strength of the nation. Additionally, Delbanco also views college as more than just a time to prepare for a job in the future but a way in which students and young adults can prepare for their future lives so they are meaningful and purposeful. Even more important is the role that college will play in helping and guiding students to learn how to accept alternate point of views and the importance that differing views play in a democratic society. With that said, the issue is not the importance that higher education plays in society, but exactly who should pay the costly price tag of higher education is a raging debate in all social classes, cultures, socioeconomic groups and races.
Students spend most of the year preparing to take one or two big tests at the end. The amount of pressure put on students to succeed on these tests is astronomical, making it impossible to focus on the actual goal of assessing their knowledge. A student in Florida spoke to her school board about the absurd expectations from these tests, “Every year I do well in school, but I get low test scores on the FCAP and it feels like a punch in the stomach. This is unfair and I don't want to lose my opportunity to take my advanced classes or get a better education because of this one test.” (Locker)
High school students everywhere in the United States make very selective class choices based on careers they may want to pursue in the future. One decision that the students may make is to take an AP class. Among students, when they hear the name AP they automatically think stress, and homework, and tests; however it also means college credit, and advanced placement and promises a future. What if the College Board changed the benefits and decided that if the school board had a problem with the crew framework and felt the need to change it, then this AP class wouldn't be worth anything in college? The promises of college credit and advanced classes would be ripped from the students' hands, and the choices they made in order to take this
Standardized tests have historically been used as measures of how students are compared with one another or how much of a particular curriculum they have learned throughout the semester or year. Consequently, standardized tests are being used to make major decisions about students, such as grade promotion or high school graduation, and higher education evaluation. Various numbers of students across America have had to repeat classes because of the way standardized tests are used to pass or fail students. Although the tests require students to retain information until the end of the semester, I believe it is wrong to allow just a single test to decide whether an entire semester’s work will be rewarded with the credits that may have been well-earned. Some standardized testing such as the SAT, are not fair to students who may come from a poor educational background and do not retain information as their fellow peers. Students are at a disadvantage if they have test taking anxiety, which is a condition that many students suffer from “a feeling someone might have in a situation where performance really counts or when the pressure's on to do well” (Test Anxiety). Standardized tests give a false pretense of objectivity and consequently of equal opportunity. However, "the only goal of standardized tests is the scoring, which is done by machine" (Facts on Standardized Tests and Assessment Alternatives). It is made clear that the purpose of testing is to provide information to be used in conjunction with, not in pl...
Today, schools are making it a priority for teachers to follow the strict guidelines of a “one size fits all testing curriculum.” Educators must prepare students for the tests that could make or break their future. This curriculum is focused only on teaching students what they need to know in order to pass the test. “Because the test is based largely on the memorization of facts, teachers will have to teach their students these specific facts instead of teaching for deep comprehension and understanding of material.” (Martin, 309) As a result, students do not learn the true lesson. Although it is highly important that students pass “the test,” this strictly based curriculum is ignoring the important academic skills and fundamentals needed for their future, even beyond the years of high stakes testing; without these needed skills students will be left in the dark once they have graduated from high school. Students often learn on different levels and their educational requirements are not being met with the “one size fits all” approach. Those who create these tests tend not to include those who learn on a different educational level; rather their focus is pointed towards the money rather than on the success of all students. Children need to learn sk...
AP students often sacrifice many aspects of their teen lives. To gain success later on life, many of these students take hard-level classes. Instead of partying and enjoying their teenage lives, many are often seen doing all their homework and getting their work done. These students often sacrifice most of their time doing extracurricular activities and schoolwork instead of enjoying their teenage years. They sacrifice their time on schoolwork rather than spending quality time with their family and friends. AP students put all their hard work and dedication so they can achieve something later on in the future. College students, just like AP students, also sacrifice their time without being with their families. Many college students, often AP, go to Ivy League colleges and stay at dorms just so they can fully concentrate on their studies. AP/Honors/College students all sacrifice something so th...
According to the Dispatch “The Columbus Municipal School District is getting more than $2.8 million over three years to improve and expand its Advanced Placement programs” (The Dispatch 1). These programs are similar to the proposed college prep course as they help prepare students for more challenging education experiences. The improvements to the program do not stop at just the courses, but also affect the teachers by “providing teachers with a $1,000 incentive for completing pre-AP or AP certification” (The Dispatch 1). The improved Advanced Placement programs will provide students with more chances to improve their quality of education but still have one major flaw and that is the fact that these courses are still optional.
The importance of not failing before reaching the further educational standards that a student needs is great. Although some skills come by experience, preparation is the key to succeeding in college. Mallinson stated individuals that took a course with her “had a few qualifications and some had dropped out of school or been excluded (36)." She further express...
Why is that some people slide through school taking shop, home economics, and gym classes? Probably because those classes boost their grade point average, GPA, and make them look more attractive to colleges. But, why should people taking harder classes like AP classes, physics, Spanish, calculus have to suffer from a lower GPA and class rank? Shouldn’t they be rewarded for their hard work? The question is “how would you change it”, and the answer is with weighted classes/GPA’s. Not many people know what weighted classes are. Luckily Lindsay (2015) spelled it out for those who don’t know what it is, “A weighted GPA is a GPA that takes the difficulty of your classes into account along with your grades” (para. 2). When schools use un-weighted classes it doesn’t always tell the whole story of how hard a student worked to receive their grades in high school. Those taking those harder classes, and still getting good grades, they should benefit from getting good grades in harder classes. High schools need to have weighted classes in order to demonstrate