Can Average Students Do AP?

Wakefield, like the other Arlington schools, welcomes average students into AP and requires them to take the AP exams. In 2005 it gave 473 AP tests and had 233 graduating seniors, for a Challenge Index ratio of 2.0300, a participation rate 36 percent higher than T.C.'s. That means it likely had a much larger portion of average students taking AP courses and AP tests than T.C. did.

And yet its passing rate on the AP exams was 51 percent, higher than T.C.'s 39 percent. Why should average students at Wakefield do better than average students at T.C.?

The answer is clear to me. The teachers at Wakefield have rejected Pat's view that AP is too much for their average kids and have instead created programs that prepare average students for difficult courses from the first days they arrive at the school. The Wakefield teachers have seen the studies that show that based on PSAT scores, far more students are capable of taking AP courses than actually do so. Those students that Pat thinks are average may just be underchallenged. Wakefield teachers find ways to lure them into demanding preparatory courses and then into AP and give them the time and encouragement they need to succeed.

I asked Mike Grill, the AP coordinator at Wakefield and an AP government and history teacher, to respond to Pat's USA Today piece. I would love to get Pat and Mike (a classic pairing, don't you think?) in the same room and have them hash this out themselves, but this will be a good start. Maybe I can persuade Mike to join Pat as an occasional contributor to The Post. Here is what Mike told me:

"Although I have great respect for Patrick Welsh's commitment to his students and have enjoyed reading his columns, I completely disagree with him on this issue. He has written previously about his opposition to forcing kids to choose between regular and AP classes and has lamented the deterioration of his and others' instruction because of the presence of unprepared/unqualified/unmotivated students in their AP courses. Likewise, he has also complained about how the quality of his instruction/discourse/learning has gone down in his regular courses because the average kids have chosen to take AP courses because of the lack of an honors course existing between the two extremes.

"My response whenever anyone asks about pulling nontraditional kids into AP/IB courses is that it is the teachers -- not the parents and the kids -- who take issue with the practice because it puts the onus on the teachers to do more than they are accustomed to doing in their AP/IB courses. What parent would not want his or her child to be in the most stimulating learning environment possible? What students does not want to feel as though a teacher thinks them capable of achieving at not only a high level, but at the highest level? Teachers are creatures of routine. At most schools, they teach the same courses for the same amount of time each day to more or less the same type of student for years on end. Of course, they're going to buck when asked to alter that routine.

"Good teaching (like good anything) is hard work. It is teachers' responsibility to adapt their instruction to their students while maintaining the rigor/standards of the course. Motivated, talented, professional teachers can do this. What other professional does not adapt their approach to meet the needs of their clients? The same approach should apply to regular courses. Whenever I have taught regular courses, I have invariably wound up using some of my AP curriculum and texts and I have found that most kids rise to the challenge, if you support them properly. I don't have patience for teachers who make excuses to explain why students can't learn in their courses. The issue is not 'why they can't learn,' but rather 'why can't you teach them?'

"This year, I have 48 AP US Government and Politics students. Of those 48, nine are white. I cannot tell you how much easier it is to convince a non-white, first-time AP student to give the course a try (or to remain in the course) when they look around the class and see others who look and talk like them. If we had an honors level Government course, it would be an easy out for many of these kids. They could get out of the regular class and avoid the demands of AP. My personal goal this year is not to lose a single one of them. The reality is that they cannot request to drop the course until the end of first quarter (a new WHS policy this year), and a few will probably go at that time. When that time comes, though, I will have to answer the question of whether we did all that we could to help those kids' attempts to be successful. If we haven't, then we've failed them because they stuck their necks out to try something that most would say was beyond their means.

"I'm lucky. I work in a school where most teachers share my beliefs about kids and how best to prepare them for college and life beyond high school. When kids do finally leave us, it's always great to hear back from them. Today, a former student stopped by before hopping on a flight to Krakow, Poland, where's she's studying art history. She barely passed my class and failed the AP exam. Yet, she and others like her who were on the fringes in my courses are invariably the ones who come back to say thank you. They know how much they learned. If Patrick Welsh and those who subscribe to his philosophy get their way, that type of learning will cease to exist, and that would be a shame."

Things are changing at T.C. The school has a new principal, Mel Riddile, who won the National Principal of the Year award while running J.E.B. Stuart High School in Fairfax County. I looked up Stuart's numbers. They are very similar to Wakefield's. Only 25 percent of its students are white, 52 percent are low-income, and yet it had a college-level test participation rate, and college-level test passing rate, much higher than T.C.'s.

Riddile has said for years that he thinks average students can and should tackle hard courses like IB and AP. Consider these two quotes from Riddile's "Titan Talk" message this week: "Success is more about effort and hard work than it is about innate ability" and "We are not building an average school." I am sure he and Pat will have much to talk about.