HOW TO STOP THE AP HISTORY COURSE FIASCO: SCHOOL BOARD CAN ELIMINATE EXTRA GRADE POINTS!
“Why AP at All?”
By Donna Garner
12.3.14
http://www.educationviews.org/ap-all/
The College Board’s Advanced Placement program (AP) used to be a legitimate way for public schools (as well as numerous private schools) to provide challenging academic content for students. That was before David Coleman took over as the president of the College Board.
David Coleman is the architect of Common Core English Standards. These are officially called “The Common Core Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science & Technical Subjects.” This touches every subject area except for math, and the Common Core Math Standards take care of that.
When David Coleman finished helping to destroy an emphasis on the time-honored classics by replacing them with snippets of informational text meant to indoctrinate students into the social justice agenda but not allow them to study pieces of literature in the historical context in which they were written, Coleman “conveniently” moved over to become the president of the College Board. He immediately stated publicly that all products owned by the College Board (including all AP tests, the SAT, the PSAT, and the GED) will be aligned to the Common Core.
True to his word, David Coleman, Trevor Parker (VP), and the College Board have redesigned the AP U. S. History course (APUSH) which has hit the schools this fall. APUSH is clearly intended to destroy students’ beliefs in American exceptionalism. The other redesigned AP courses are in the pipeline and will be released periodically, including the Common Core-aligned SAT.
What should we do to counter the College Board’s attempts to indoctrinate our country? “Hit them in the pocket book.”
First, the College Board has received over $300 million over the last 10 years in federal funding that is first laundered through the states (through the AP Test Fee program and the AP Incentive program). The undeniable truth is that hundreds of millions of federal taxpayer dollars end up in the coffers of the College Board. The U. S. House could and should certainly cut the funding for AP and let the College Board pay for its own marketing and testing expenses. After all, why is the federal government helping a private organization make a profit?
Second, the reason students take AP in many instances is to get the points added to their Grade Point Averages. Local school boards have the authority over the GPA. This means that local school districts can elect or not elect to award GPA credit for AP courses. The locals can decide to offer advanced courses for GPA credit that could use other alternative content.
Third, Dr. Duke Pesta, who has worked in higher ed for many years, has stated on Alice LInahan’s Show that colleges/universities are so desperate for students that most will honor parents’ requests to have their children take CLEP tests or local admittance exams to get advanced credit. Therefore, students do not have to take the APUSH exam at all.
What high-school parents are going to have to decide is whether they want their young high-school children indoctrinated into the social justice agenda through APUSH at a very vulnerable time in their lives. Alternative programs are available at least to supplement their high-school children’s background (e.g., Hillsdale College, etc.). In fact, I have always said that taking one AP exam can hardly substitute for an entire college semester of course instruction. Students who test out of a semester course are bound to lose some valuable course content which then eventually hurts their children’s academic depth.
I realize that college students will invariably experience the liberal-leftist professors, but I believe it is wiser to allow that to occur when students are two years older with two more years of maturity and in college than to put them under that liberal-leftist indoctrination as high-school juniors or seniors.
Please go to the following link to read “COMMON CORE MATH IS BAD, YES, BUT WHAT ABOUT HISTORY?” – This article explains how the College Board’s new AP U. S. History Framework is causing students to hate America. The article also contains a strong and fact-based rebuttal to the misinformation that Trevor Parker of the College Board is spreading around the country. “The truth will set you free.” By reading through the rebuttal, you will know how to counter with the truth whenever educators start reiterating the talking points given to them by the College Board: http://www.voicesempower.com/common-core-math-is-bad-yes-but-what-about-history/
Donna Garner