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E-PrinceThe plethora of language, math and science courses offered at Princeton is a boon for the student body. There is, however, a major flaw in how students are placed into these courses. Currently, the University allows students to enroll in ...(back to the article)
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soooooocialist
equalizing => equally poor
never = equally rich
reason,
this has absolutely nothing to do with socialism. It isn't right that students are repeating their junior or senior years of high school at the expense of students whose high schools did not offer AP or IB courses and are taking a certain level of math or science courses for the first time. It is effectively the privileged kids at this school screwing over students who did not have the same advantages growing up. If students from the country or the inner city get Cs in math and science courses they are going to switch into the social sciences or humanities. Your high school background shouldn't limit your academic opportunities in college, but the current system does just that.
A classmate of mine took a placement test and tested out of the Introductory Biology course at my university. She had taken AP Bio in high school. Instead of opting to skip the class, she took it anyway. She gets average grades and says that she is glad she took the course because it had much more content than her AP class in high school. If we are to educate good scientists, then they must have solid foundations. Perhaps letting students skip college-level introductory courses is not wise. After all, AP bio in high school does not necessarily equal intro biology in college.
The assumption of this editorial is that if another student does well in a class, it reduces the chances of everyone else. However, if you take a calculus class and learn all of the material, you will get a good grade. No matter what rules are made, not all students will be equally prepared for a class. Get over it and focus on your own learning. Don't make excuses.
If the prof knows who had the material in high school before, then he/she could exclude them when determining the grade cutoffs.
I took Hebrew 101 at Princeton about ten years ago. It was an intro course meant for students who had never learned the language--but I had already had nine years of Hebrew school. As it turned out, so did most of my classmates.
Those who didn't quickly dropped out. It was painful to see them struggle to learn the alphabet when most of us were fluent in it. And I thought that I probably shouldn't be taking an intro class having had so much experience already.
The thing is, my nine years of Hebrew school allowed me to coast through exactly 3 weeks of Hebrew 101. After that, it was all new to me. (I guess my Hebrew school wasn't great compared to Princeton, eh?)
A few completely new-to-Hebrew students stayed in the class and worked hard, and I'm sure some of them ended up outscoring me at the end. I think I got a "B" in the class.
My points:
1.) I wish there had been an intermediate course for those with some familiarity of the subject but not enough to leap right into Hebrew 102. This is probably the case with other subjects as well.
2.) Students with some experience in a subject, taking that subject at Princeton, are indeed unfair to those who've never experienced it before. But...
3.) What can you do? Force students to take courses at the proper level? Tell students who've had better Physics classes in high school to take PHY-105 instead of 103? In the end, the students who truly lose are those who took classes below their ability. (But, as always, try telling that to the students.)
What about equality of teaching? Based only on experience as both a student and a teacher...an outstanding Pre-Cal teacher prepares a student for Math 103 probably better than an OK to shoddy AP Calculus teacher would. So if you're going to nit-pick about who has APs and who doesn't, shouldn't we also reflect on quality of teachers?
Furthermore, what about FSI? Many of the students who come from these "underprivileged" (I'm sure many of them would be frustrated to be labeled this as they come from privilege in other areas of life)are already taking math over the summer, competing in a different pool...which renders your entire argument moot.
Let's avoid "leveling the playing field" and focus instead on giving students the motivation and support they need to succeed.
If you have taken calculus before, then you are better prepared for taking it again, since you already know the material. If you do worse than someone who has never seen an integral before, then shame on you. Also, if you tested out of calculus with an AP exam then you actually do know the material and probably shouldn't be taking it again. I understand that some schools don't teach AP courses well, but that is reflected in students AP scores. If students test out of courses with a 4 or 5, like my roommates did with physics and chemistry, yet retake these classes, they are putting students who have never seen the material at a disadvantage.
BTW, if you are poor and white the university does not invite you to fsi.
If AP scores aren't to be trusted, perhaps more departments should make their own placement tests. It seems silly to force students who took AP classes in HS and actually learned the material (and then some) to take introductory classes. While I can understand why the MOL department may not trust AP results as it doesn't take much to get a 5 on the AP Bio exam, it's pretty dumb to make everyone take MOL 214 (or 215); I know I certainly covered more in my AP class than I would have covered in 214.
As crazy as it may sound...