So if you have been following this thread you will remember that in my high school we got four kids signed up to take the AP exam as practice in level 2. Here is the rest of that story – only one showed up.
These kids, one freshman and three juniors, have AP tests coming out of their ears right now, and three said screw it I’m not going if it’s only practice for next year when they take it for real. The level two kid who was tenth in CO on the NFExam just shook her head yesterday when I asked her about missing it.
She is very quiet and I could tell she is being a kind of AP ([fill in the blank] for the school, as only fifteen percent of our students each year (my guess on that percentage) take about three AP exams a year, usually starting as sophomores earning scores, I am guessing, of 1.5 at best across the board.
Our school has become some kind of sick proving ground that is a lie because little is mastered, as was the case of one of my students who last week took the AP Music Theory exam and knows about as much about that topic as as I do, which isn’t much. All these kids taking a test just to look good!
Again, the admin and the AP corporation cash out, and we sit there with our hearts beating at this time of year, just exhausted, and too bad if they fucked up the proctoring of your exam, Leigh, after all the work you did to prepare those kids.
It’s all about the ones with the money. You play a small part. But you DO get to be an AP Teacher. Has a nice ring to it! I always like to say I taught AP French Literature. THAT ought to get some people to like me.
The point of this long thread on AP, then, has been simple. We do the work and they get the money.