AP Human Geography At Roosevelt
I hadn't heard much about how the first year of AP Human Geography at RHS (a required class for all sophomores) had gone. Here's a blurb from the Rider Record (parent newsletter) which I assume was written by a teacher:
"RHS Social Studies teachers are proud to share that our first year of the 10th grade AP Human Geography course was a great success. Students were talking about, writingabout, and filming important issues in the world around them, near and far. ―235 students took the test with an average score of 3.234 (162 students scoring a 3 or higher). That is worth a major kudos to the staff and the students, said Principal Brian Vance. We are gearing up for another year of viewing the ever changing, complex world around us through the lenses of population, cultural, economic, environmental and political geography. Once again, we will host two evening family book seminars, one in fall and one in spring. Watch for the date of our first seminar on the book Three Cups of Tea and check out the work of the author, Greg Mortenson, at https://www.ikat.org/. "
I am impressed with those test stats. There are roughly 410 kids per grade at RHS so out of the sophomore class, 235 took the test with an average of 3.23. That's pretty darn good for kids who likely have never taken an AP test (some colleges give credit starting at a 3 although most want to see a 4 or higher). I'll have to look and see if the student newspaper has any student feedback.
"RHS Social Studies teachers are proud to share that our first year of the 10th grade AP Human Geography course was a great success. Students were talking about, writingabout, and filming important issues in the world around them, near and far. ―235 students took the test with an average score of 3.234 (162 students scoring a 3 or higher). That is worth a major kudos to the staff and the students, said Principal Brian Vance. We are gearing up for another year of viewing the ever changing, complex world around us through the lenses of population, cultural, economic, environmental and political geography. Once again, we will host two evening family book seminars, one in fall and one in spring. Watch for the date of our first seminar on the book Three Cups of Tea and check out the work of the author, Greg Mortenson, at https://www.ikat.org/. "
I am impressed with those test stats. There are roughly 410 kids per grade at RHS so out of the sophomore class, 235 took the test with an average of 3.23. That's pretty darn good for kids who likely have never taken an AP test (some colleges give credit starting at a 3 although most want to see a 4 or higher). I'll have to look and see if the student newspaper has any student feedback.
Comments
Helen Schinske
And ya gotta like a course called "Human Geography." Doesn't it just conjure up the wonderful ways humans are built, full of hills, dales, cliffs, plateaus, and other marvelous and other endlessly individualistic topographies?
Now here's the big question: would those 65 students have taken the test even if the other 200 students were in AP European History instead of AP Human Geography? In other words, how is this better than continuing to allow students to choose a more rigorous class instead?
Helen Schinske
Since nobody seems to wonder about HP human geography [HG] at Roosevelt anymore, maybe it is a waste of my time to post here but I can't help having an opinion.
I guess the Seattle schools has turned into statistic freaks. I guess the only measure of success here is % taking and passing AP exam.
I think we need a comprehensive survey of all the students and their parents who took HG class at Roosevelt in the last two years and get their opinion of the course.
I think this would be an eye opener. There are always those who will love it but I think a significant number would wish they had the choice to take European History instead.
I am very familiar with this class and know actually what was taught in the classroom. I am not against HG. It is a worthwhile class but is it worth eliminating Western European History from the curriculum?
I think it is a travesty that my children will go through the SPS and not have ANY western European History [WEH] -very little if any at Eckstein and very little if any at Roosevelt. I believe WEH is the basis of our culture. While one can certainly point to European history words and paragraphs in the HG textbook, the narrative surrounding the course was not about European History at all. I could elaborate more; but unless people are seriously interested, I am a lone voice.
There was an article in the Roosevelt news about the lack of Western European history by a student in the fall of 2008 [maybe nov/dec issue]. The reasons given by the adults in the article didn't make any sense to me.
Since my child was not at Roosevelt when the switch was made, I am not sure of the process by which WEH was eliminated.
The memo put out by the SS dept didn't seem to match my understanding of the realities I preceived.
I don't even think WEH will be offered at all next year as an upperclass elective. My child wouldn't take it as upper class elective anyway so I guess it didn't matter.
I am very sad that the SPS has chosen worthless statistics as the prime motivation for course selection.
I suggest we do away with Chemistry and Physics and have AP+ ecology and AP++ "green studies". Maybe we can get over 90% of our students to do well on the AP+ exam and give them master degree credits in ecology and the doctorate credits in the green revolution instead of learning any physics. We can even throw in some chemistry and pnysics terms so it sounds like they are still learning chemistry and physics. NO one can argue that Ecology and cleaning up the world is not very important for our future especially with the gulf oil spill. [It's obvious - I am joking}. This is the logic that I surmised was used for HG selection.
For the record, I never took European History past High School and am not a young person now. However, I have a profound respect for the efforts and failures of those in Europe hundreds of years ago. Without their efforts, my world would be a lot different today. I'm certain that my life is better today becaue of the efforts of those in Europe.
Thanks for letting permitting me to post my opinion.
In the June 2010 issue of the Roosevelt news, another student on page 7 describes APHP [human Geo AP] as, "you take boring classes such as APHG, and worst of all, there is no way around it"
He in another line says.
"you get stuck with boring classes like APHG"
While as a parent I thought the class had a lot of merit, I could see where many sophomores might not like it.
If you can't get into the APHG narrative with thousands of facts and countless charts, it can be a nightmare of a class.
I personally liked the APHG narrative but thought the textbook of over 300 pages was incredibly dry.