How to Build A Better High School

How to Build A Better High School

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051001100.html

A few private high schools have discarded AP altogether. Bruce Hammond, director of college counseling at Sandia Preparatory School in Albuquerque, N.M., has found a dozen schools, including his own, --that have rejected, or are about to reject, AP in favor of designing their own courses. Many teachers agree that instead of focusing on a standardized curriculum like AP, they should concentrate on making lessons exciting, well taught and linked to students' lives. "The troubles that arise in high schools are precisely an extension of the lack of intellectual vigor--forget rigor--in the elementary-school curriculum and pedagogy," says Deborah Meier, founder of a small East Harlem high school that succeeded in motivating low-income students by emphasizing discussion and writing.

一些私立高中已經完全不用AP。在新墨西哥州Sandia預備學校的校長 Bruce Hammond，發現了包含他在內的十幾所學校已經抵制、或將要抵制AP，他們贊成去設計屬於自己的課程。許多教師同意，不要聚焦於一個標準化的課程，例如AP，他們應該要集中全力讓課程活化起來，所教導的東西要和學生生活做連結。East Harlem 高中創辦人Deborah Meier，他成功提昇低收入家庭學生學習動機，藉由強調討論和寫作，他說：「現在的問題就是，在高中提倡的是關於智力活化的課程，但是在國小的課程與教學中卻忘記去嚴謹地設計」。

But superintendents, principals and many teachers in districts that have increased their commitment to college-level courses say even with their shortcomings, AP and IB are the most effective ways to take a demanding curriculum to the widest range of students. The tests have an incorruptible high standard, since a teacher cannot dumb down the final exams, and some AP and IB courses appear to be bet-ter than the college courses they substitute for. Luther Spoehr, lecturer in education and history at Brown University, says the AP American-history course "is one of the last places where students can get a survey course that really insists that they try to understand change over substantial periods of time. " Jon Reider, guidance counselor at San Francisco University High School and a former Stanford admissions officer, believes that because of smaller classes, better student motivation and more-experienced instructors, "calculus is almost always better taught in high school than in college."

但是在這地區的州長、校長、和許多老師已承諾去提昇課程到大學的水平，缺點就是：AP 和 IB是使用在範圍最廣的學生中，最能達到要求的課程。這個考試有一個高標準，因為老師要去評分期末考試成績，有一些AP 和 IB課程成績比他們所替代使用的大學課程更好。Brown 大學的歷史學講師Luther Spoehr表示：「AP裡的美國歷史課程，是學生可以從中學習調查的過程，他們試圖去瞭解具體時間內的歷史改變。」舊金山大學附設高中校長、前史丹佛大學講師Jon Reider認為由於小班教學有更好學習動機的學生和經驗豐富的老師，「微積分在高中比在大學更好教」。