Thoughts on a Mid-Summer Day

It has been almost a month since I wrote anything for the blog. School being out for the summer, I haven’t had much to write about.

During the summer I go into school about once a week. During the first weeks off I organized my classroom and did a complete edit of the lab book we use in chemistry. The next time in I will print out a copy of it to bring to the printer. I still need to repaint the student tables in my classroom. I attended an AP Conference which allowed me to live in a college dorm for the week—I will have something to say about my experience in the next post. It was a busy week and I came home with several new ideas.

The final exam in Honors Chemistry went well and I had no calls concerning final grades, but the AP Biology teacher did contact me the second week of summer break about a student still trying to get into her class for next year. I wrote before about the young lady who requested AP Bio, but was denied admittance because she did not meet the qualifications in terms of previous background (The Permission Dilemma, 2/13/08). The teacher informed me that the girl has been persistent in her request to be added to the class list, pleading her case to anyone who would listen (principal, president, director of guidance). In her latest written request to be admitted she announced that she had taken the ACT test and scored a 29—this would put her in the top 5% of all students in the nation. I was not moved by her first argument and agreed with the teacher that she should be rejected, but this new information made me think more deeply about it.

I taught this girl two years ago and found her to be above average, but not outstanding. She is a champion of memorizing and spitting things back out on the exam, but weak in her level of true understanding. She is absent often, especially on test day, and was in the bottom 25% of incoming freshmen three years ago. I verified the girls claim concerning the ACT score with guidance, asking how a student could move from the bottom 25% in the nation to the top 5% in three years. No one has a good answer for this, though I get the impression that a number of people are suspicious of the validity of the latest score. That being said, and having no objective reason to dismiss the new ACT score, the teacher and I decided that she could be admitted into class. I asked the teacher to make it clear to the girl that absences on test day or poor performance would be unacceptable and result in her being dropped from the class. We decided that in the future we would make the student’s ACT score the deciding factor if they did not meet the customary requirements, it being easy to determine the average ACT score of the current class with the help of guidance. Based on my AP Chemistry class this year, a score of 27 should be sufficient to demonstrate you are at par with the other students in the class.

I am still uncertain about how she will do. She may surprise all of us and excel, or at least hold her own, making the opportunity a benefit to her, or fail and learn an important life lesson about getting what you wish for.