As for AP Credits and why we are so hungry for them, I heard a recruiter from JHU point out that in their experience, the vast majority of kids with AP credits do NOT graduate earlier, they stay for their whole college experience and graduate with extra credits. Given that information, the only benefits of AP classes that I can find are:
1. The ability to skip 100 level classes in your freshman year.
2. The awareness that “yes, by passing this, I CAN do college work.”

For those that do graduate early, I think you do make a good point.

First, doesn’t anyone remember that Japan went through all this in the 1980s? It was the same basic scenario — lots of pressure to get into the “best” universities, kids committing suicide because of not meeting goals for standardized tests, and so on. Sometimes I feel like people in our district are trying to turn the Bellevue district into a Japan-circa-1980s school district. But Japan hasn’t been the economic threat for the past 20 years that everyone was so afraid of in the 1980s, has it? I think that says there’s more — much more — to success in business and in life than what grades you get or what university you go to. Japan vs. the US in 1980 compared to Japan vs. the US in 1990-2010 demonstrates that.

Second, there seems to be a big mismatch between the district’s self-image and its track record as far as college prep goes. As I pointed out on my blog, http://www.bellevueschools.net/college-entrance-rates-and-the-district-mission/, over the past few years fully one-third of Bellevue graduates don’t go to college at all. Why the intense focus on AP classes when one-third of students don’t go to college at all?

Another part of the self-image mismatch is that few Bellevue graduates go to Stanford, Harvard, etc. As I pointed out in another blog entry, http://www.bellevueschools.net/bellevue-graduates-college-plans-2010/, last year only 1 kid district-wide went to Harvard and 3 kids district-wide went to Stanford. The vast majority of kids went to UW, Bellevue College, WWU, or WSU.

Third, I was hoping the movie would talk more about, “What is the point of all the hurrying?” So your kid earns AP credits. What is the real goal of that? Is it so that your kid can graduate from college at 20 or 21? Is that even a good idea? I’ve observed that adults who graduated from college earlier than their peers are as often handicapped in their adult life as benefited. I think the best thing that can happen to some people is to graduate from college later and older.

I agree the movie provides good food for thought, and there are a few more points I believe are worth thinking about.

Here are some key findings:
• 597,000, or nearly 60%, of Washington children attend Fair or Struggling public schools.
• Only 93,000, less than 10%, of students attend a Very Good or Exemplary public school.
• The great majority of schools, 1,208, rank as only Fair or Struggling,
• Only 212 schools, barely 10%, rank as either Very Good or Exemplary.
• The poor academic performance is not due to lack of support from taxpayers – funding for Washington public education is at record highs.
• Public schools receive just over $10 billion a year, or $10,200 per student, in operating funds, plus an additional $1.3 billion for school construction.
• Since 1980 education spending, adjusted for inflation, has more than doubled, while the number of students, due to smaller families, has increased by only a third.
• There are fewer students today in relation to the total population than in the past, and spending per student is the highest ever.

In Bellevue, the International School received the highest score of 6.44 (1-7 scale). Robinswood Middle and High Schools scored 3.67 and was the lowest scoring Bellevue school.

To find how a school in your area is performing, please visit: http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/research/education/public-school-accountability-index

To read the policy note, please visit: http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/notes/washington-policy-center-public-school-accountability-index

For questions or comments, please contact Liv Finne at lfinne@washingtonpolicy.org or at (206) 937-9691.

Thanks!

Mary

maryl08@uw.edu
http://www.explorationsinmath.org