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OP-ED: We Won’t Get an Educational Return without First Making an Investment

4/7/2010

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By John Brandon

House Bill 1135, signed into law by Governor Mitch Daniels on March 18th, allows Hoosier students who earn a score of 3 or higher (out of a possible score of 5) on an Advanced Placement Exam—the test that students can opt to take after completing an advanced placement course in high school—to receive college credit toward a degree if they attend an Indiana public institution of higher education. According to Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett, this legislation is “a win-win for students and education stakeholders across the state. An additional 10,000 AP exams passed by Hoosier students would now be eligible for an estimated 44,000 college credit hours that were not awarded in the past. Not only will students benefit, but their parents will realize the monetary savings as well.”

As part of his educational reform effort, Dr. Bennett has been strongly advocating more schools to offer advanced placement courses and exams and more students to take on these rigorous and challenging courses. The state requires every high school to offer a minimum of two AP courses and every district must provide AP math and science courses; as an incentive, the legislature appropriated funds to fund courses and some districts help to pay test fees for students. According to a recent study released by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University, these efforts have led to a significant increase in the total number of students taking at least one AP exam—from 8,206 in 2003 to 13,098 in 2009, a whopping 60% jump.

Unfortunately, the percentage of Hoosier students who scored a 3 or better on the AP exam actually decreased from 53.3% in 2006 to 50.3% in 2009. So we have more students taking the courses and the exams, but we are not getting the results we had hoped to achieve. What can we do better? According to the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy study, we need to do three things: 1)prepare students better so that they can handle the more rigorous coursework; 2) prepare teachers better so that they can help students succeed; and 3) provide schools with more resources so they can do numbers 1 and 2.

But it is hard to see how this “win-win” is actually going to result in victory for Hoosier students when we hear almost daily of school districts across our state cutting programs and laying off teachers at an unprecedented rate. There is no doubt that it makes complete sense to help students prepare for the rigors of higher education while getting advanced credit for college course work which will enable them to move steadily toward a degree while saving parents (and students) hard earned money. But if we want to prepare students to win, we adults have to be willing to invest the resources that it takes to achieve victory. As a much-celebrated local university basketball team has shown us, if you put in the work and remain committed to excellence, there is no limit to what you can achieve. Hoosier students deserve no less from the adults in their lives who are responsible for providing a high quality educational system. And remember: if they win, we win—big time.

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John Brandon is the president of MCCOY (Marion County Commission on Youth), the youth services intermediary for central Indiana. MCCOY’s mission is to champion the positive development of youth through leadership on key issues and support of the youth worker community. MCCOY’s vision is that every young person in central Indiana has opportunities to thrive, learn, engage and contribute.



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