AP classes and SAT scores can both be thought of as measurements of success factors for high school. But does one have an affect on the other?
As I mentioned my last post, we noticed a couple of things about our school district that indicated that our school was not preparing students as well as it could to take the SAT and the PSAT. So I started trying to figure out why. Not that I think the SAT is a perfect measure for learning, but it seemed like the level of achievement should at least stay the same.
At the risk of looking like a total nerd in the community :), I started talking to some other parents.
First, I found out that the private school had no advanced placement classes (AP) as part of their philosophy. (So maybe we should be springing for private school? But it’s unbelievably expensive. I still wondered… Until I found out that this exclusive academically advanced private school was recruiting volleyball players and giving them full scholarships. But, as I like to say, that’s a topic for another post…)
Then my sister, who’s on the faculty at a university, attended a lecture where she heard that National Merit Scholars read something like 100x more than their lower SAT scoring peers. (I can’t find a source to quote, but it was a ridiculously high number.)
This started setting off alarm bells in my head. I’ve mentioned before that our school started requiring unbelievably time-consuming summer projects for preAP/AP classes. And when we were first hit with them, the packet was accompanied by a research paper about how important recreational summer reading was, and how these projects would support that.
Hah!
With the summer projects my kids had less time for summer reading. And, even though all our kids love to read – I mean to the extent that they get in trouble for reading instead of doing their chores – with the heavier AP loads, I had noticed that they were reading novels less.
So, personally we were seeing that taking a heavier AP load was having the result of less reading.
Which means that having a full load of preAP/AP classes might have a negative affect on SAT scores. Since SAT scores are supposed to measure vocabulary and reading comprehension as well, that would mean that AP classes could be affecting reading skills in a negative way.
Obviously, there are lots of kids going to demanding high schools, taking a full load of AP classes, and doing well on the SAT. But are they doing it the hard way?
In case you don’t make it down into the comments, Amanda Valentine of reads4tweens.com pointed out an interesting recent story on NPR that shows that teens are reading less than they did even 10 years ago, Why Aren’t Teens Reading Like They Used To?
Do you have teens? Are they reading a lot for pleasure? Why or why not?
Note: I found the original story of the study the NPR story is about, 4 Alarming Findings About Kids’ and Teens’ Reading. Unlike the NPR story which seems to be against ebooks, when you read the full article, the study does promote reading ebooks is an option. But while reading these articles I did have one further thought about why my own teen might be spending less time reading. For the last 5 years, the books he’s been assigned in school have been overwhelmingly depressing. For more of my thoughts on that, see my post about depressing assigned reading. As a result, I think he is starting to associate reading with feelings of anxiety and sadness, rather than thoughtfulness, fun, and adventure. Then when you look at the popular books made available to teens, a large percentage of them are “dark.” I’m not the only one who thinks that. For a good discussion, see the controversial article, Darkness Too Visible, by the children’s book critic Meghan Cox Gurdon, in the Wallstreet Journal. Thoughts?
I heard this story just a day or two ago about how kids aren’t reading for pleasure anymore. http://www.npr.org/2014/05/12/311111701/why-arent-teens-reading-like-they-used-to
They tended to blame electronics (and don’t appear to have counted reading ebooks as reading, which is a HUGE issue) but I’d like to see more research into the impact of the focus on testing and the tendency to *require* a certain amount of reading, which is not reading for pleasure.
I’m a voracious reader, but in college I had so much assigned reading that I couldn’t finish it all. I felt that if I hadn’t finished my assigned reading, I shouldn’t read for pleasure either. So I stopped reading anything that wasn’t assigned. After I graduated, it took a while for me to break that habit, and I’m sad now about the 10 years or so I will never get back where I wasn’t reading like I could have been. When I became a college instructor, I recommended that my students keep reading for pleasure, even at the expense of their assignments.
My students also reported that they stopped writing for fun right around middle school when assignments became so much more structured and creative writing was usually not part of it. Most of them wrote a lot as youngsters, and as freshmen in college maybe 1 or 2 out of 24 still ever wrote something that wasn’t required of them.
I get the need for standards and requirements, but if it’s at the cost of discouraging kids from becoming life long readers and writers, that’s a mighty high cost to pay.
Thanks for the link to the article – I’ll look it up! It makes absolutely no sense that they wouldn’t include ebooks in this study – it sounds like they have no idea what an ebook is; they probably have them mixed up with children’s book apps, which are entirely different. I actually *asked* our son to read some of his recent books as ebooks because I was hoping that it would mean that he could more easily look up words and expand his vocabulary. His difficulty has been remember to read when the physical book isn’t present.
Clearly the book also isn’t captivating him enough, but I also just noticed a marked decrease in his reading – he’s in high school – compared to his sisters’ and his own reading in middle school. Besides lack of time, I think another problem is that the books they’ve been assigned in English over the last 5 years have caused to associate the reading experience as something that makes him feel sad and anxious, rather than thoughtful, adventuresome, and happy.
I had the same thing with my reading disappearing during high school and college!
That’s an interesting thought on required reading time – even if the kids get to choose their own material. My kids were always thrilled to have assigned reading, because it mean they could read whatever they wanted without feeling like they should be doing homework. But, I wonder if the kids who feel forced into it come to associate reading with that feeling?
I don’t have a teen, but when my 1st grader was assigned reading last year over her summer break between Kindergarten and 1st grade, she hated the books. This summer, they only have to list the books they read and have a requirement for spending time reading- anything of their choosing, and she is excited about reading this summer. I am sure the teen mindset alone of *having* to read something versus choosing to read something plays a factor in the enjoyment of the book.
As for preparation for SAT and AP, I could see how reading would have a strong correlation with SAT score because of the emphasis the test has/had on high level words. However, I have mixed feeling on the the idea that schools should be preparing students to take the SAT. That just opens up a larger discussion of if we are missing the point or maybe it makes the point that we should reassess what kids learn in school?
It’s really sad to think about a 1st grader hating the books their assigned to read over the summer! I’m glad it’s at least more loosely defined this year.
Yes, I have mixed feelings about SAT too. The tricky thing is that in the upper range the SAT can translate into real money, especially at private universities. One thing that schools are definitely encouraging students to take and preparing them for are AP tests, and they’re also standardized tests. They’ll tell you that this will save you college tuition money but universities and colleges are taking less and less AP credit. Probably some of it is based on their own earning potential. But I know in some instances it’s also based on student performance when they skip prerequisites with AP tests.