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"School Will Be Harder" in Houston; Sixth Graders Face Pre-AP English

Ohanian Comment: So what does this mean? Moby Dick for 11-year-olds? I've never understood AP courses. College is supposed to be the best time of your life. Why would you want to cut it short? There's evidence, that all this cramming doesn't work. Even passing AP calculus doesn't meant you 'got' it. I know lots of kids who discovered, after suffering through it in high school, they still had to take it in college. So what is the point?

I read Moby Dick in college and even got a good grade in the course. I didn't discover it was a great book until I tried reading it again at age 42.

Maybe Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews will start a best middle schoolslist--based on how many pre-AP courses they offer. Then, when Newsweek publishes the annual list,all those competitive parents can feel proud.

Maybe one day someone will ask how the kids feel.

`School will be harder' in HISD

HISD will require next year's sixth-graders and high school students to take more rigorous English courses to better prepare them for college or the workplace, a decision the nation's foremost college testing authority considered groundbreaking.

Superintendent Kaye Stripling announced the initiative Tuesday at the Houston Independent School District's annual State of the Schools address. The initiative would automatically place sixth-graders in classes that are designed to prepare them for, or at least make them aware of, the more rigorous advanced placement courses in high school. Students who pass the AP tests earn college credit while in high school, and district officials would like to see more students take them.

"Beginning next school year, school will be harder," Stripling told a crowd of about 1,900 educators, students and community and corporate representatives at the George R. Brown Convention Center luncheon.

The plan for sixth-graders could make HISD the first district in the nation to introduce pre-AP requirements at the middle school level, a spokesman with the College Board said Tuesday.

"This is a tremendous initiative that the Houston school district is undertaking," said Trevor Packer, director of the College Board's advanced placement program. "We have not seen any other districts requiring students to take pre-AP or AP classes. This will allow all those students to have the option of attending college."

More than 60 percent of U.S. high schools participate in the AP program, and about 1 million students took AP exams in 2003, Packer said. In HISD, 5,053 students took AP exams last year, district officials said.

Besides saving college-bound students time and money, the AP courses also are used by some universities as a consideration in their admissions processes.

But too few high school students, especially minorities, take the courses, Packer said. About 17 percent of the students who took the exams last year were minorities, he said.

Compared with test-takers from five years ago, however, the percentage of minorities more than doubled, he said.

In some instances, many students were not steered toward the AP programs, he said.

"Previously, students were not considered `AP material' unless they were gifted and talented," Packer said. "But the number of students taking AP has grown wildly over the past five years."

Some districts limit AP class eligibility to students with high grade-point averages or teacher's recommendations, he said.

HISD's program for the sixth-graders is designed to help students prepare for the AP class. Students who do not want to take what the district is calling "pre-advanced placement" will need a parent's permission to opt out of those courses.

The initiative also requires pre-AP English teachers to complete the necessary certification, Stripling said.

Eventually, Stripling said, seventh- and eighth-graders also will be required to take pre-AP courses.

At the high school level, AP courses in English, math and science will be required for those students who are academically successful or who have scored well on the PSAT.

About 9,700 10th-graders took the PSAT last year, a test that shows potential for the SAT, another barometer used for college admission. The district last year began requiring sophomores to take the test as part of the PSAT for All initiative.

Corporate donations to the HISD Foundation helped pay for the testing. About 23 percent scored well enough to be automatically enrolled in advanced placement courses, Stripling said Tuesday.

Yates High School valedictorian Thieu Nguyen called the PSAT a necessary test "for our future."

While students may take numerous tests, they likely think, "man, I need to get a good score" on the PSAT for scholarships and other opportunities, said Nguyen, who was among the students who spoke at Tuesday's luncheon.

Stripling acknowledged that those new, more demanding courses will require training and certification for teachers. HISD is working with the Texas Education Agency and universities to find the money for teacher training.

One critic of the initiative, HISD Assistant Principal Robert Kimball, questioned the push for the pre-AP and advanced placement courses.

"There are kids who can't even pass the regular class, and they're going to be forced into AP classes?" asked Kimball.

"I'm all for high standards, but we're not ready to go there yet. We have to save those 30 to 40 percent of kids dropping out first," he said.

Robert Stockwell, HISD's chief academic officer, said tutorials and other help will be available for students who may flounder.

"Kids surprise us and sometimes even themselves when they discover they can do this more difficult curriculum," Stockwell said. "But that's why we have the parent option as a safety valve."

The initiative, he said, will help the district adapt to a more competitive environment.

"Colleges and jobs are requiring higher level of knowledge and skills," he said, "so we really have no choice but to strengthen our students."
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HISD will automatically place sixth-graders in "pre-advanced placement" classes beginning next school year.
The class is designed to prepare them, or at least make them aware of, the more rigorous advanced placement courses available in high school.

Students who do not want to take the pre-AP course will need their parents' permission to opt out.


— Jo Ann Zuniga
Houston Chronicle
2004-02-18
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2407489

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