Recent changes in high school education have shifted the focus on how classes are taught. With graduation requirements growing increasingly stringent, classes are becoming more and more geared toward teaching students how to pass exams rather than informing them of material that is worthwhile or interesting. The unfortunate result is that many students who want to learn and experience a challenge are bogged down in rote, boring classes.
That is exactly why high schools adopt or maintain Advanced Placement (AP) programs, college-level classes organized by the College Board that offer challenging material to high school students in a variety of subjects, such as science and history, and allow them to earn college credit while in high school. In the admissions process, colleges tend to look favorably on students who take AP classes, because it indicates that they can endure the sort of challenging courses they will find in higher education.
But AP classes are coming under increasing scrutiny by certain, mostly elite, private high schools. For instance, Fieldston School, a private high school in the Bronx, contends that AP courses seek to cover too much information, and gut the exploration of creative ideas and themes from the classroom. The school phased out their AP program years ago, and found that student admission to first-choice schools actually increased. Most of this, however, happened through early decision acceptance.
These elitist schools mistakenly assume that classes that cover a broad array of material inevitably deny any kind of interesting or creative elements from the class. Course effectiveness depends on the instructor's abilities and the way a class is taught, not solely on content.
For instance, a U.S. history course covers over 200 years of material, although it is not required nor expected that the teacher discuss every aspect of U.S. history. A teacher can organize creative discussions on specific material while encouraging students to study the basic history outside of class. Granted, this format involves more work, but these classes are supposed to be challenging.
But as alternatives, elite schools like Fieldston want whole classes to focus on specific material, such as Native American history rather than American, or the literature of New York City, as opposed to English and American. While these programs undoubtedly have their merits, they also deny high school students the basic knowledge that any accelerated student should possess when he or she enters college.
Specific programs are better placed in college, where students have an understanding of basic academic material and are able to use their high school underpinnings to direct them toward specific courses of study. Most college classes, especially those in elite universities such as those Fieldston students designated as "first choice," will do little to re-educate the students of the subject matter.
One of the other positive benefits of AP courses is that colleges and universities, including UB, use them to allow students to skip basic, general education classes that instruct equivalent material. What they provide for students is an escape from the constraints that limit their ability to learn at a level that respects their interests and academic capabilities.
The specific courses taught at private schools such as Fieldston should not substitute for standard AP classes. Not only do they excise and water down rigorous AP courses, they also shut out students who are not interested in the specific topic. A broad class does not mean that is a boring - it means that it provides students a much larger basis for them to explore and learn about what they want.
