The Hypocrisy of the Eight-Person Class
To the disgruntled students who wanted to take AP English or AP Spanish, you are not alone in your annoyance at this year’s changed schedule. Both of these classes were cancelled and are no longer offered, and students wishing to take either class were enrolled in IB English or IB Spanish in a schoolwide push toward a more IB-centric curriculum.
I’m not here to criticize the IB program itself, nor to compare it to AP classes. IB encourages critical thinking rather than rote memorization, and since more and more students are taking IB classes (especially English) it makes logical sense to lump everyone together into one class to make it easier on teachers.
On that level, this change was absolutely beneficial, although taking an AP test rather than an IB test can be simpler and less complicated for getting college credits (many colleges accept only a score of 7 on a Higher Level IB test for credit, versus a 4 or a 5 on an AP test).
I have been told that if one wants to take the AP test in either subject, they can self study along with taking the IB equivalent of the course and take it at the end of the year like normal. This may work for English; however, from personal experience, tests such as AP Spanish require extensive preparation in class to prepare. Nearly the entire second semester of my AP Spanish class was dedicated to preparing for the exam; now, those wanting to take the AP Spanish exam may be out of luck.
So, why were these classes cut in the first place? AP Spanish remains a mystery. There were upwards of 50 people in two rotating periods last year, the majority of whom took the AP test. Apparently a total of 16 people signed up for AP English for the 2014-2015 school year, and this low number was enough to convince the administration to cut the class entirely — having a class for 16 people would be too specialized and cause unnecessary strain on other class sizes.
However, the stated reasons for cutting the classes do not line up with other class sizes this year. While 16 kids is too few to run AP English, there are under ten students in Math IB HL 2, and even less in ESL. There are less and less opportunities for students who want to take AP classes: take, for example, those who took CP English in 11th grade with the expectation of being able to take an AP class in 12th grade are now forced to choose between taking the second year of IB English (which is substantially harder without the first year as a background – after all, it is a two year course) or remaining in CP.
NPHS seems to be pushing more and more toward a more IB-focused curriculum. While that will open up some opportunities, it will take away many others that students still want to be available.
