How Does This Affect College and AP Students and Teachers?
College and AP students and teachers have to cover more material than regular classes because the classes are college level and students can take the national exam in May. According to a few students at the high school, there is more pressure on AP students than regular students because of the exam in May. These students are not only involved in their academics, but also sports, music and other clubs which means that some students have lots on their plates and all of this creates lots of stress.
Many AP and college teachers at Alexandria Area High School had many comments and concerns about the school's current AB block schedule. The biggest concerns from most teachers were: the amount of instruction time during the school year, the one on one connections with students, and cutting college course material out of their curriculum because they don't have time to fit it in the AB block schedule.
Because it's every other day learning for students, many of the college and AP teachers have to take time out of their daily lesson plans to review what students learned two days ago. That's about 15 minutes out of 85 minutes every other day. The teachers do this because students forget the material and can't recall the information as quickly if they had class every day. Many teachers also explained how having many students every other day makes it difficult to make one on one connections with them. Another concern from lots of teachers is that they are having to cut college course material because there is not enough time during the school year to cover everything. Most teachers say they have to pick and choose what material to go in depth with because there's not enough time.
Several social studies teachers explained how they handle not having enough instruction time during the school year. One of them had their AP US History class voluntarily come into school on the weekends in the beginning of March until the end of April in order to make up the time they needed to complete the course material before the APUSH exam in the first week of May. Another teacher noticed how on a traditional schedule his year-long College American Studies course would start with Exploration and Colonization and covered up to the 1960’s, but under the time constraint of the AB block schedule they only covered through the Roaring 20’s. Language teachers have also noticed how meeting everyday has caused gaps in students understanding and that a language should be practiced everyday for consistency. The AP Chemistry teacher at AAHS also explained how most students can't fit in a year of regular chemistry into their AB block schedules before they take AP Chemistry which makes it harder for them to understand the college material.
Overall, when students and teachers are stressed and worried about having time to cover all of the college and AP material, the results for the national exams and the well being of students could be negative.
