Gilbert high schools nationally recognized for college prep advancement

1 comment:

• WesternConnections posted at 4:26 pm on Wed, Nov 21, 2012.

  Posts: 59

  Folks, it's important to know that The College Board, the entity making this award, is one and the same vendor that sells the Advanced Placement curriculum to school districts. There's an incredible amount of money at stake, but this award is not worth the paper it's printed on..

  Connect the dots: The College Board, which also administers Advanced-Placement exams, has tried to make AP classes mandatory in every California high school. Nationally, in the Class of 2011, more than 1.6 million high-school seniors had taken the SAT, a 30 percent increase from a decade ago. The test costs $49. Sending SAT scores to up to four colleges is free, after which it costs students $10.50 for every additional college. Rush delivery is an additional $30 per school. AP exams cost $87 each, and students took 3.1 million of these tests in the 2009-10 school year. When The College Board was getting this scheme started in Florida, we had two kids in Florida high schools. The key to implementation, which was touted nationally as a great success, was that students DID NOT PAY to take the exams. The College Board gave the state a reduced price per student, so lots of kids enrolled in AP classes and took those exams to simulate a greater demand than there was. Of course, that was used as a "model" for other states and districts.

  The College Board also is the vendor for the SpringBoard curriculum, which is controversial across the nation, but was pushed on the GPS board, who had to make a decision right then, right there, even though parents and teachers implored the board to reject it. Sorry, Highley and Gilbert public relations departments, this award is not what it seems.

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