False Honors and Grade Inflation Catch up to Minority and Low Income Students

During a visit in March to an honors sophomore English class in an impoverished area of Connecticut, Robyn R. Jackson heard the teacher declare proudly that her students were reading difficult texts. But Jackson noticed that their only review of those books was a set of work sheets that required little thought or analysis.

Washington post article, "In Many Classrooms, 'Honors' in Name Only" recounts a growing suspicion of the titles "Honors," "Advanced," and even "AP" when referring to high school courses. Colleges are disappointed with the content that is taught in classes that are supposed to be "college prep."

While universities and other public school critics point fingers at incompetent high school teachers, the teachers point fingers at the fact that they simply cannot teach advanced material when mastery of basic material is not yet achieved. The courses have to be offered however, regardless of whether or not students are able to handle the content that should be included, because of college expectations of course names on students transcripts.

How do students end up falling so far behind, that administrators and teachers feel that they have to set up pretend advanced courses of sorts in order to give the students a chance before college acceptance boards? The article states that the problem is clearly more prevalent in minority and low income school districts. What is going on in these "have not schools?"

The article offers several answers, many of which call for more outside government implemented bench marks to make sure that students are achieving high enough competency in these public schools.

Without such benchmarks, said Andrew Rotherham, a former White House education adviser and a member of the Virginia Board of Education, "there is too much variance, and that ultimately disadvantages students, in particular poor and minority students. It sounds very romantic to say, 'Leave it all to the schools or the teacher,' but it just doesn't work in a system as heterogeneous, in every way, as ours is."

It seems like these issues all come down to a lot of finger pointing. What I want to know is, what curricula are available to these schools? Do the teachers feel they can use them effectively or that they are working? Something isn't working.

Maybe educators and politicians at all levels need to think about luring young people to technology, literacy and knowledge through their own culture and interests, and Henry Louis Gates recently implied in his Q&A time at Grand Valley State University, and as my professor has been showing us with YA literature. It seems that for whatever reason, these students just aren't being reached.

The article offers one success story of Narciso Chavez, who attends a low income school that has received aid from the College Board for preparing large numbers of low-income and minority students for AP courses. The program takes the stance that taking challenging courses needs to be encouraged early, and that standard needs to continue though high school. Apparently, the summer, after school and other accelerated AP programs that Chavez participated in have worked in his case, raising his bench mark scores in spite of being low income, a minority, and at one time being diagnosed with a learning disability.

Chavez received high scores on the state tests in geometry and algebra 2.
This year, he is taking AP Spanish, AP English language and AP chemistry. He also has a special AP seminar that gives him extra time at school to confer with teachers and do homework. He does four more hours of homework a night, with an hour-long break at 9 p.m., when he reads the Bible and prays with his family. "I decided I wanted to be successful," said Chavez, who is thinking of a career in engineering, law or chemistry.

In Many Classrooms, 'Honors' in Name Only
As High Schools Offer More Advanced Courses, Educators Fear Content Doesn't Always Earn the Label
By Jay Mathews Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; Page A10
Complete Article