Free Republic

Another school board has decided that honors classes will have to be done away with … in the name of “equity and inclusion.” According to The Globe and Mail, the Vancouver School Board declared its math and science honors courses “do not comply” with the district’s goal of “ensuring that all students can participate in every aspect of the curriculum.” The district said in a statement that its revised curriculum requires “an inclusive model of education” so “all students will be able to participate in the curriculum fulsomely.” Yeah, I had to look that last word up too. This is...

The new Advanced Placement European History framework has received a makeover that eliminates religion’s influence on the development of Western Civilization, ignores Winston Churchill, whitewashes the evils of communism, and lauds the welfare state, according to David Randall with the right-of-center National Association of Scholars. […] Virtually all mention of religion in the 19th century is removed, and several key figures such as Christopher Columbus and Winston Churchill are not mentioned in the College Board’s framework, Randall said. […] The College Board’s new AP European History examination, which debuted last year, “turns Europe’s history into a foreshortened, neo-Marxist, generic narrative...

The latest version of a top-selling study guide for the Advanced Placement European History exam explains the French Revolution with a chart which identifies Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a fascist and pairs him with the Ku Klux Klan.“Barron’s AP European History” (7th edition) makes the claim, intended for consumption by American high school students, on page 168. The chart attempts to compare modern American political affiliations with the various factions involved in the French Revolution. The chart moves politically from left to right.The far right of the chart is labeled “fascist.” The authors demonstrate modern-day “fascists” by pairing “Clarence...

The South Orange-Maplewood School District in New Jersey will be likely lowering their standards for AP classes after a successful lawsuit brought by the Department of Education. The DoE brought the suit to weaken South Orange-Maplewood's practice of "tracking," or placing students in separate educational paths to suit their needs. Proponents of tracking believe that it helps all students; not only will educators teach students at their level, but it will prevent large classes in which students of different needs are taught all at once. The DoE and opponents of tracking believe it promotes "segregation," by favoring white students and...

(CNSNews.com) -- Some high schools in Oregon are creating an optional “13th grade” in order to provide students with another year of academic support while boosting the state's on-time graduation rate. Starting with the Class of 2014, hundreds of students who have completed four years of high school but have not received their diplomas will be considered “graduates" for statistical purposes. At 69 percent statewide, Oregon had the second-lowest graduation rate in the nation for the Class of 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Our “All In” campaign is focused on increasing the enrollment of African American, Latino, and Native American students in AP® courses. We know that you, too, are committed to equality and helping all students achieve at a higher level. This is a tremendous opportunity for you to help by joining the College Board’s All In campaign. By registering below, you pledge to review the master schedule at your school or in your district to ensure that 100 percent of African American, Latino, and Native American students with AP Potential™ are enrolled in courses in the 2014-15 school year.

To better diagnose achievement gaps and help education leaders tailor solutions, federal civil rights officials on Thursday released an expanded, searchable set of information – drawn from schools in more than 7,000 districts and representing at least three-quarters of American students. The survey’s data show, as never before, the education inequities that hold various groups of students back. For example, in 3,000 high schools, math classes don’t go higher than Algebra I, and in 7,300 schools, students had no access to calculus. Schools serving mostly African-American students are twice as likely to have inexperienced teachers as are schools serving mostly...

When you run into malaprops among Advanced Placement students, you really have to ruminate over the condition of education. “Reading 800-plus Advanced Placement essays at a table of other people doing the same thing tends to inspire waves of correctorial comments of the ‘kids say the darndest/silliest/inanest things’ variety,” Lisa Fluet writes in the October 8, 2010 issue of The Chronicle Review. Fluet, an assistant professor of English at Boston College, shared a few of these: “Some new vocabulary I learned, and some things students asked me to contemplate as a reader of their essays: “‘Dead ass’ means ‘very serious,’...

The filmmaker Vicki Abeles features the stories of students and teachers of Advanced Placement classes and the pressures they face in our achievement-obsessed culture.

Dropouts Seek a Boost From Equivalency Exams Numbers Seeking a Degree Swell -- But Gains May Be Limited A growing number of Americans are taking high school equivalency tests in their hunt for any leg up in a bleak labor market. Adult-education centers across the country report backlogs and waiting lists for prep courses cramming dozens of topics and years of lessons into weeks or months. But the potential for a better job and pay that drives many to seek a General Educational Development diploma comes with a caveat: The certificate generally is of limited value unless students use it...

The soaring costs of a college degree are prompting colleges to consider a three-year degree program. Britain has long granted a degree for three years of college. I would like to suggest a one-year degree program. And I don’t mean an associate’s degree. Here are some hard facts most colleges will never tell you and most parents could not tolerate hearing. The general requirements of the first two years at most colleges are what high school should have been. That is what junior should have learned had he not been busy getting high, getting drunk, and being socially promoted. Better...

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. ... After decades of grooming a handful of high school students in an exclusive research class to succeed in the elite national Intel Science Talent Search, school administrators this year, for the first time, required every seventh grader to do original research. With similar goals in mind, the district has added honor societies in English, art and music — for a total of seven — to recognize students whose overall grades may keep them out of the National Honor Society. Since 2003, it has expanded its menu of Advanced Placement courses to 25 subjects and opened them...

... An equity and excellence gap appears when traditionally underserved students comprise a smaller percentage of the successful student group than the percentage these students represent in the graduating class. For example, if 20 percent of students in a state’s graduating class are African American, true equity and excellence would not be achieved until at least 20 percent of the students scoring 3 or higher on AP Exams are African American. • 18 states have closed the equity and excellence gap for Hispanic or Latino students. • 16 states have closed the equity and excellence gap for American Indian or...

SCARSDALE, N.Y. — The Advanced Placement English class at Scarsdale High School used to race through four centuries of literature to prepare students for the A.P. exam in May. But in this year’s class, renamed Advanced Topics, students spent a week studying Calder, Pissarro and Monet to digest the meaning of form and digressed to read essays by Virginia Woolf and Francis Bacon — items not covered by the exam. A similarly slowed-down pace came at a cost for some students in one of Scarsdale’s Advanced Topics classes in United States history; it was still in the 1950s at the...

Offered up to $1,000 for scoring well on Advanced Placement exams, students at 31 New York City high schools took 345 more of the tests this year than last. But the number who passed declined slightly, raising questions about the effectiveness of increasingly popular pay-for-performance programs in schools here and across the country. Test Dollars Students involved in the program, financed with $2 million in private donations and aimed at closing a racial gap in Advanced Placement results, posted more 5’s, the highest possible score. That rise, however, was overshadowed by a decline in the number of 4’s and 3’s....

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryFebruary 4, 2006 President's Radio Address      Audio      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week in the State of the Union address, I set forth my American Competitiveness Initiative. This plan will help our Nation to compete with confidence, raise the standard of living for our families, and generate new jobs for our citizens. Generations of risk-takers, inventors, and visionaries have made America the world's most prosperous and innovative nation. Just 25 years ago, most Americans used typewriters instead of computers, rotary phones instead of cell phones, and bank tellers instead of ATMs. Today America...

I've been getting asked more and more about my position that high school is a waste of time and my recommendation for parents to give their children a choice to skip high school. This is in response to the liberal agendas now prevalent in high schools as well as the simple fact that such a strategy would give kids a 4 year head start on their peers. Below are some useful links for investigating this option. I will repost my own experience under that. http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/school/equivexam.html UCB Parents Advice about School Taking the High School Equivalency Exam Advice and recommendations from...