Bloomington High School North, Nikean, 2018, Page 35

Description:	lski pose in front of Mr.Df the D^ bulletin board, onaonly usd }n AP examr day. StrJerits write downd then d}w a picture thatBy doinis0; students prepareMay a li!,Ie bit each day andar with <P vocabulary.The average American studenttakes approximately 112 mandatedstandardized tests between pre-kindergarten and their senior yearof high school, and that doesnteven include optional tests such asthe AP exams. In the age ofstandardized testing, a lot ofcontroversy has surrounded the^educational world on the good ando)f teaching to the test, orteac^MbS curriculum built with thesole purpose of preparing students:o pass a certain examination.mj^s Englishteachers, this is exactly their job: toget students ready for the APLiterature and Language exams. ButMr. Kupersmith, a self-professednerd about rhetorical analysis andteacher of AP English Tr^oesntsee this as a necessarily bad tSfag,Because the AP English exams tesr^on a wide range of rhetoric andsynthesis skills, he thinks thatpreparing students to pass them isa good way to teach the material.If the test is a good test, thenI think its okay to teach to thetest, Mr. Kupersmith said.The biggest problem Mr.Howard sees with AP classes istheir potential to divide students ina negative way.If you take kids and startseparating them into groups basedon your perception of their abilitylevel...then that can, I think, hurtthe growth of both people who areisolated in AP classes and peoplewho are isolated in Core 40classes, Mr. Howard said.In an ideal world, studeoJ^flujd take AP classes solelythey are intggpted in morechallenging curriculum andgenuinely want the opportunity t<dive deeper into academic matedcording to senior SaraBredemeyer, however, manystudents only take APs becausijfeel like they have to.I feel like whenever ther\|like, a more advanced option,is heavy pressure to take it,Bredemeyer said.With the excessive workltand exclusionary tendencies asAP does have its benefits. It gi\students the unique opportknock out college classethey even graduate high schoolpassing the AJ^flIm glad that we have APclasses so that I dont have to payfor those extra classes in college.senior Phoebe Powell said. Plusalso get an amazing learningexperier
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomnorth/id/8634
Collection:	Bloomington High School North

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