Warnings Regarding Dual Credit and AP Courses

Students who chose to partake in Dual Credit and Advanced Placement courses do so based off of recommendations from ignorant, external influences. The reasons each of these individuals choose to influence students to pursue these programs vary. Parents possess only surface-level thinking in that they believe that their student’s success, health, happiness, and well-being will be determined by academics alone. They believe that giving them more challenging work will only provide benefits and opportunities for them. After all, William Darity in his article ” Increasing Opportunity to learn via access to rigorous courses, that parents “pushed” students to take advanced courses because ” they would benefit them in some way or another.” They fail to consider that students’ overall well-being is much more important than their academic pursuits.

One reason the administration encourages students to take dual credit and AP courses is that like parents they are ignorant of potential risks. As George Wachowiak points out in his text “ Dual Enrollment experiences: Perceptions and readiness for post-secondary education“, students are pushed to participate in these programs because of “decisions based on policymaker belief rather than program efficacy. Like the parents, administration such as teachers and advisors are blind to the overall effectiveness of these programs.

Another reason administration encourages students to take dual credit and AP courses is because they gain an incentive. Predictors Of Success Among High School Students in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate by Shannon Suldo states that ” many states provide financial incentives for schools and districts based on AP or IB student enrollment.” Selfishly, the school pressures students to join AP and dual credit courses to gain this bonus. Another financial benefit high schools pertain to when increasing the number of students in AP and Dual Enrollment is statistics. High schools can also publicize statistics based on the number of students who engage in higher education, so they accumulate enrollment for upcoming years. Administration pressure students into thinking they need to take these courses so that they can gain these benefits.

Mental health concerns remain an issue for those taking advanced courses because the structure of these programs lacks resources and flexibility for the student. One reason this occurs is because advanced educated students are overlooked. They are overlooked because their gradesFor this reason, there isn’t much support available for those struggling to take advanced courses. Teachers are not a reliable resource because they are not required to take any additional qualifications to teach advanced education. Dual Enrollment teachers teach high school students as if they are college students and AP teachers teach the same subject material as a regular class but at a much more accelerated rate.

Teachers in both programs are not reliable resources because they are not required to take any additional qualifications to teach advanced education. Dual Enrollment teachers teach high school students as if they are college students and AP teachers teach the same subject material as a regular class but at a much more accelerated rate. College professors are not given any additional resources on how to teach high school students advanced material. The college professors wouldn’t even know that the child was in high school unless they told them. There are no mechanisms these teachers can offer to their students for how to handle the additional difficult work. In regards to AP teachers, there are many problems that reside. For instance, many AP teachers also teach regular curriculum classes in addition to their AP responsibilities. This leaves them unavailable to plan thorough lessons, talk after class, or for any additional support. Therefore, teachers in both programs are not much help in recognizing or helping students struggling in AP or Dual Enrollment courses.

There are many time-based restrictions a student in these courses is presented with because of the time-consuming work presented. Once enrolled in Dual Enrollment there are no time opportunities or extracurriculars, sports, any after-school events, or a job because college classes have to be taken during and after school. The student typically leaves after 4,5 or 6 periods of high school and then goes to college. At this point, there is no time to be able to do anything after at the student’s high school or outside the school. Students who are in AP have an abundant amount of homework and studying therefore their time at home with family and friends is interrupted. Students who are in either program struggle with getting an appropriate amount of sleep, eating proper meals, finding personal time for themselves, and exploring other interests or hobbies independently. Dual Enrollment and AP are dangerous for students because it provides an extreme time burden.

Students frequently don’t receive credit for the work done in these courses because of dual credit restrictions set by the college institutions. As stated in the article ” Whither Advanced Placement “ by a Yale affiliate William Lichten, ” A majority of tests taken do not qualify.” Advanced Placement students do not qualify for college credit for the course if they don’t receive a high enough score on the final test. It is globally proclaimed that these tests are extremely difficult. Along with the student stressing about work during the year, they have to stress about taking an extremely hard test at the end of the year that determines if their hard work paid off. Dual Credit works differently, the student may pass the final test but there is a possibility of not receiving college credit. This is the case because sometimes certain courses at one institution aren’t available at another therefore they can’t provide college credit.

Engaging in Dual Enrollment or Advanced Courses can become so overwhelming they lead to the student committing suicidal actions. As proclaimed in a study referenced in the article ” Suicide and the Gifted Adolescent” by Marnell Hayes ” Of the eight, five were reported as gifted underachievers, two were in advanced placement classes, and two were in programs formally designated as gifted programs.” Although two students are a low number no student ever should have to experience such a level of unsatisfactory in their life as a result of their school work. This statistic not only speaks to the idea that Advanced Placement is hard but also recognized how struggling students can go unnoticed. No student at all should want to commit suicide but because of the mental and physical difficulty of Advanced Placement courses students want to hurt themselves.

References

Darity, W., Castellino, D., Tyson, K., Cobb, C., & McMillen, B. (2001, April 30). Increasing opportunity to learn via access to rigorous courses and programs: One strategy for closing the achievement gap for at-risk and ethnic minority students. ERIC. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED459303 

Hayes, M. L., & Sloat, R. S. (1990). Suicide and the Gifted Adolescent. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 13(3), 229–244. https://doi.org/10.1177/016235329001300304

Lichten, W. (2000). Whither Advanced Placement?. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 8, 29. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v8n29.2000More Citation Formats 

Suldo, S. M., Shaunessy-Dedrick, E., Ferron, J., & Dedrick, R. F. (2018). Predictors of Success Among High School Students in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Programs. Gifted Child Quarterly, 62(4), 350–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986218758443

Wachowiak, G. M. (2015). Dual enrollment experiences: Perceptions of readiness for postsecondary education (Order No. 3732521). Available from ProQuest Central; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global; Social Science Premium Collection. (1734891739). Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rowan.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdissertations-theses%2Fdual-enrollment-experiences-perceptions-readiness%2Fdocview%2F1734891739%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D13605