Comments on The New Progressive: The Right Questions about Advanced Placement cours...

Let's agree that schools are certainly capable of ...

2009-03-08T13:15:00.000-04:00

Let's agree that schools are certainly capable of creating fine curriculum on their own. AP doesn't need to be in all schools.
The fact that some schools offering AP might be able to provide satisfactory answers to your questions does not aid your essential point that these are the right questions all schools should be asking about AP.

Well, I think I stand by the questions, as pointed...

2009-03-08T10:00:00.000-04:00

Well, I think I stand by the questions, as pointed as they are. I think that there are schools offering AP-designated courses that can offer satisfactory answers to these; it's all about mission and purpose.

My approach to AP, incidentally, is that it is fine in its place, which doesn't happen to be all schools and all classrooms. Is there a particular reason that AP has to be regarded as universal in its excellence, however, or to doubt that schools and faculties are capable of creating fine curriculum on their own?

It's clear from your questions, which are like the...

2009-03-08T03:06:00.000-04:00

It's clear from your questions, which are like the Catch 22 "Isn't it true you no longer beat your wife Mr. Jones", that you bring a passel of AP baggage to your analysis. I have written both critically (for Education Week and in a dialogue in Mathews' Post column) and complementarily (Chronicle of Higher Education) about AP. Hopefully, you will be able to go back and read Mathews' criticisms of your narrow-minded approach to AP with the goal of broadening and objectifying your analysis.