[fanzhang]

It's worth noting that the author here seems to be a teacher.

One design feature of AP classes is to indeed remove some discretion from teachers. This is a drawback when you have amazing teachers, and a godsend if you have bad or just plain lazy teachers. This is the same pattern as checks-and-balances vs dictators.

Since APs are a control mechanism for teachers then, I would take the article's opinion of APs with a grain of salt. A much more neutral party would be that of a student: a bad test causes pain similar to a bad teacher.

The good news about the student point of view is that most people here can draw from personal experience -- real data.

He cites an AP Calc teacher who was really stellar but got punished by not covering enough material by the time of the AP test.

In your experience, what fraction reflects that AP Calc example above (where discretion is used well at the detriment of the test), and what fraction reflect teachers using discretion badly (and getting caught by the test)? For me the ratio is like 1:3 if not 1:5.

I am open to the idea that there may be good ways to give teachers more discretion in positive ways, but I think it really needs to be acknowledged that APs exist in the first place to solve a problem, a problem that can't just be waved away without convincing data that show an alternative system performs better.

[zamansky]

I'm the guy that wrote the article and yep - I'm a teacher. Really good points here. I already know the answers with respect to my school and schools of friends and colleagues but that is a small sample and not necessarily representative. It's part of what colors my opinion and yes - I agree, one should take everything with a grain of salt.

I know for teachers of APCS (my subject), they used to have a large case study to cover. Teacher's for which the case study fit naturally into their teaching approach, it worked pretty well. For people like myself and many friends and colleagues, it was a large 100 page document with all sorts of ins and outs that took time from teaching, you know, CS.

To your point, a weaker or less knowledgeable CS teacher would probably end up using the case study as a support which could be a good thing.

I guess this also brings a question of depth to mind - in AP Calc, should kids be proving and deriving or memorizing. I'm in the prove and derive camp but a lot of people think otherwise.

Anyway - thanks for your comment here - would you mind cut and pasting it over on the blog - I think it's a really good point and would love to save it for posterity and future readers.