AP tests no match for Greeks, Rick Astley

By: Chongsheng Chen

Posted: 10/7/08

If you were one of the roughly 30,000 (31,997 according to the Facebook group "Everybody write 'THIS IS SPARTA!' on your AP and school essays") who wrote "This is Sparta!" on the 2008 AP exams in a free-response question or essay, consider how seriously you took your AP exams.

Were you really that serious about getting a 5 or college credit?

If you were completely clueless about the questions you were given and simply put down "This is Sparta!" or invoked some other fad, such as the Rickroll (look it up), chances are you probably didn't really take the course seriously, unless you were one of those who actually studied but still were unable to come up with an answer and so decided to join craze.

You were probably one of the many students who chose to take APs to prove to your dream colleges that you were capable of studying "college-level work," as the College Board suggests AP courses are equivalent to. You probably wanted to show off how good you were to your favorite school, whether that favorite school of yours was Brandeis, Boston University or even Harvard. You probably wanted that precious extra weight to your GPA that could bring it to a maximum of 4.5 or 5.0.

AP courses, however, sometimes do not perfectly sync with college-level courses. Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews interviewed a parent whose child who took AP European History in sophomore year, who said the teacher "had little knowledge of European history and little training prior to the class." Even worse, much of the class was focused on test-taking skills rather than actual European history. "They were primarily taking review tests from the College Board Web site," the parent said. The parent believed this problem to be due to the increasing teacher shortage, which leaves few AP-qualified teachers to teach an increasing number of AP courses.

Indeed, a teacher shortage does cause a drop in overall numbers of AP-qualified teachers who can teach high-quality AP courses that equate to college-level work. Perhaps this is one reason for putting in such pointless responses such as "Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down."

The AP curriculum could also be to blame. Schools have actually elected to drop AP, according to Bruce Hammond, who runs the Web site "Excellence Without AP." They've been opting instead for curricula that are more hands-on with less rote memorization, more inclusive of certain surveys of the humanities and that have more studies through non-traditional disciplines such as film studies.

Colleges have increased the required AP test scores for credit; Brandeis requires scores of 4 or 5 in order to receive course exemptions, but some exams will not receive credit at all, such as AP German Literature. This is most likely due to significant variation in AP curricula, as shown in Mathews' article. Not all AP courses are "advanced." So what should be done with APs so that students will take them seriously?

Keep AP courses in schools, but on the condition that course quality must emphasize college-level study skills over rote memorization. Teacher quality must also improve; more teachers must be recruited and trained in AP courses. Meanwhile, AP alternatives, such as the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, should be introduced to more American schools. The IB curriculum is much more rigorous, emphasizing three core requirements in addition to a required exam. Schools should also make their own curricula more rigorous.

But we cannot simply add more courses to high schools and say that we're solving the AP quality problem. Student motivation needs to get stronger, transcending simply working to earn a grade in favor of an actual passion for knowledge.

How can we emphasize passion for knowledge? The college admissions race emphasizes the "well-rounded" student with the highest GPA, SAT and AP scores, and sometimes class rank. The rat race of college admissions is apparent; this must be stopped. Combined with the failure of some schools to deliver quality education through AP courses, that race is even more apparent and dangerous. A shallow curriculum focused on grades and test preparation will only promote more unmotivated students to lack skills for college study.

In short, "This is Sparta!" is a warning message to schools and educators everywhere: APs are no longer completely synonymous with high quality, college-level courses. Do something about it.