I have an inherent negative gut reaction to the AP language exams. I think they are profit driven corporate jokes. They make us crazy (the French AP exam certainly made me crazy with unecessary stress and worry in SC for all those years). We let that happen. It’s our fault for giving away power to a corporation. Think about it. We are the professionals, but our professionalism and dedication to our craft is placed in a lesser position of importance and influence than the needs of a corporation. That’s messed up – really messed up.
Our group member Clarice is an IB taecher in the Sacramento (CA) Valley. This is from her staff page, and it really resonated with me in a positive way:
Ms. Swaney [is] an advocate of the IB program. She believes the multi-cultural nature of the program as well as its emphasis on the interrelationships/connectedness (concurrency) of learning gives the students a deeper understanding of the curriculum. IB looks to the development of the whole student and preparing the student to become a citizen of the world.
To date Oakmont’s IB Spanish students have had 100% passing rate on the Spanish exams since students began sitting for their first exam as juniors in 2009. She favors IB exams over AP exams believing that IB exams are designed to allow students to demonstrate what they know versus being penalized for what they don’t know. [ital. mine]
Sra. Swaney is IB trained in: Spanish Language B SL/HL 1, 2, 3; Theory of Knowledge level 2, Ab Initio Language B level 2.
We’ll get Clarice’s bio soon. I met her in St. Louis this past summer and I can tell you that we are lucky to have her in our group.