Eram Alam seemed to appreciate the challenge of advanced-placement classes.
“I loved the fact that it was very difficult, and it was very fast and it really tested you,” said the 17-year-old senior at Chicago’s Von Steuben High School, who is currently enrolled in AP biology and has taken AP chemistry and AP physics.
Amina Jarad, 17, another Von Steuben senior enrolled in AP biology this year and who took AP chemistry last year, said that just being in the class taught her important lessons about surviving the rigors of college life.
“You have to be able to pay attention,” Amina said of her AP classes. “You can’t zone off. Everything [the teacher] says is important.”
All of which should be music to the ears of Chicago Public Schools officials who are trying to revitalize the system and stem the “brain drain” that has cost it some of its best and brightest students. One way to do that is to offer more challenging programs for high achieving students whose sights are set on college, and advanced-placement courses figure prominently in that strategy, said Chicago schools chief Paul Vallas.
“The objective is not only to restore AP, but to go beyond and to develop high performance, high achievement magnet programs and put those programs in neighborhood schools,” Vallas said.
AP is an international program administered by the College Board, a membership-based organization that designs curriculums and offers tests allowing high school students to earn college credit before entering college. AP tests are given in May, and this year more than 13,000 schools gave the tests to an average of 58 candidates each. Tests are scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with a score of 3 or higher needed to earn college credit.
“It’s a wonderful program for helping students develop to their fullest potential,” said Paula Herron, the College Board’s associate director of teaching and learning in the Midwest region. “It gives them a chance to see what they can do, to take college level courses in the high school setting, which is more friendly and supportive, and they take a lot of lifelong skills with them.”
The College Board provides teacher training through one-day workshops and weeklong summer institutes, and teachers are invited to participate in the grading of the tests. There is no procedure for certifying AP teachers, but they do receive feed back on how well their students performed, which tells them if they need to strengthen their program.
Linda Patton, an AP biology teacher at Von Steuben, said it is in the nature of these students to seek challenges. That is why much of the training teachers go through deals with techniques to keep them interested and engaged in the course work.
“I don’t need to stand and lecture at them for 15 minutes, or spoon feed them or scream at them to do their homework,” Patton said.
That motivation probably also explains why many of these students are involved in several extracurricular actives while taking AP classes, usually accompanied by honors or other higher level classes.
“You know how they say `If you want something done, ask a busy person,'” Patton said. “That’s the way these kids are. They’re mature, they manage their time well, they’re disciplined. They’re just achievers, achieves, achievers.”
Five years ago, the Chicago Public Schools had little to offer these students. Vallas said only one third of the system’s 79 high schools offered AP classes. Last year, 54 high schools had at least one AP class thanks to the addition of more magnet schools and the introduction of magnet-type programs in other neighborhood schools. These programs include the international baccalaureate program now in 15 schools, and the 10 math/science/technology academies, two rigorous curriculums built around AP and other enriched classes.
Herron said the College Board also is working with some Chicago schools that are introducing course material and teaching strategies in the middle school grades to prepare students for high school AP classes.
Vallas believes there is no doubt that the introduction of such programs has stemmed the flight of high-achieving students from the district. According to Chicago public school records, between 1995 and 1999 the percentage of high-achieving 7th graders who left the system by the 9th grade declined to 17 percent from 27 percent.
The decline corresponded with a steady rise in the number of students taking AP exams. The largest increase was May 1999 to May 2000 when the number jumped 20 percent to 3,258 from 2,596; the success rate–defined as a score of 3 or higher–inched up to 40.3 percent from 39.4 percent.
But most educators see testing and scoring as only one side of AP. Peter Kempfer, a college counselor at Von Steuben, said just taking the classes gives students an edge with admission officers who often don’t even know the student’s score when the application is submitted but recognize the value of the experience.
“I think the major value of an AP program is that the students are in an environment where they’re stretching themselves,” Kempfer said. “They’re exhausting their academic abilities. Whether they get a 1,2, 3, 4 or 5 on the exam is really not the important thing. They’ve been in a challenging situation. They’re better prepared to go to college.”
CHALLENGES AND REWARDS OF AP CLASSES
Molly Timmons isn’t worried about college next year.
“I feel extremely prepared,” said Timmons, a senior at Sandburg High School in Orland Park. “I have a lot of friends that are already there. They tell me about their course load and I’m not intimidated at all because, junior year, that’s what my classes were like.”
The reason Timmons, 17, feels so well prepared is because of the advanced-placement classes she took in English and U.S. history last year.
However, she might not have taken those classes if not for the current mindset at Sandburg, which has led to a dramatic increase in the number of students enrolling in advanced-placement courses and taking AP exams.
This year, 464 students took 911 exams–the school ranked 55th among more than 13,000 schools offering the exams globally and sixth in the 13-state Midwest region. This year’s totals marked a big jump from the 226 students and 394 exams taken in 1995, a benchmark year because it was the year Sandburg adopted a new AP initiative.
“It starts with a philosophy that all students should be challenged, that it should not be an elitist program,” Principal Jack Balderman said
That effort came together last year with a new program offering a rigorous schedule of advanced-placement and honors courses, coordinated by teams of teachers who recruited students.
“A lot of kids were labeling themselves and wouldn’t venture past that, as far as taking honor or advanced-placement classes,” said Steve Echternach,an advanced-placement U.S. history teacher. “We tried to zero in on the top students and say, `You can do all of these classes if you wanted, all you need is a little bit of a shove and some help.'”
At the same time, school officials made it known that everyone was welcome to enroll in advanced placement.
About 170 students participated on the two teams, while more than 50 students enrolled in advanced-placement classes outside the teams. Bladerman estimated 200 student enrolled in AP classes but did not take the tests.
Increased participation may have affected the school’s success rate, which is measured as the percentage of tests with a grade of 3 or higher.
In 2000 it fell to 65 percent, from 74 percent in 1999.
But Balderman said the decrease is not as important as the fact that an additional 166 exams received passing grades–577 exams passed this year compared to 411 in 1999–and many more students received the valuable experience of being in the classes.
“I wasn’t taking [advanced placement] so I could take the advanced-placement test,” said Timmons, who passed her advanced-placement tests last year and plans to attend the University of Iowa in Iowa City. “I was just taking them because I thought it would be better preparation for when I went to college.”
