AP and Dual Enrollment Disaster

AP/DE courses have grown to be popular means for achieving higher education in high school, however, many participate in these programs blind to the downfalls, warnings, and misconceptions. Many students and their families, blindly pursue AP/ DE opportunities without considering the potential for burnout, demotivation, or exhaustion that can result from the additional work. Students inevitably strive to put in additional work and in doing so accumulate added stress and other detrimental effects which oftentimes don’t generate non-academic related, personal gain for the student. AP/DE should be modeled after Special Education programs to ensure that the well-being of the student as a whole is being acknowledged and prioritized over other factors existent in these programs such as incentives schools receive from the students’ achievements.

For instance parents of a well-functioning child would never approve of them being classified as having “special needs” and being assigned to SpEd courses not suited for her intellectual abilities and where she would not thrive. On the other hand, parents never object when their well-functioning child is placed into AP/DE courses unsuited for her intellectual abilities and where she will be overmatched, unable to keep up, and stressed until her mental health suffers. Parents according to terms of either program are not required to do much more than pay for the necessary supplies and provide transportation but as a parent, naturally they should want the best for their children. Parents fail their children by allowing them to blindly enter these programs and not support them as their work load increases dramatically. A similar situation occurs with school administration of the student because they also never takes into account when a student is struggling mentally, emotionally, or physically. Contrary to these points, it is the main goal of any SpEd programs and the parents of those students in SpeEd to prioritize human needs over academic needs. 

Too many students deem eligible and are therefore admitted to AP/DE programs. As students are selected there is a great chance that many factors weren’t considered in their eligibility and therefore they are pushed into the program unprepared. These factors that should be more heavily considered can include physical, emotional, social, and mental qualifications. Basing eligibility on grades for higher education in a broad manner is improper means for evaluation as it eliminates the possibility of recognizing underlining risks and concerns for students. Schools continue to conduct this eligibility in this way because they want to put more students in these programs regardless of whether they are ready or prepared. Schools are blind to the detrimental effects they are risking for their students by placing them in these programs, they could become more knowledgeable if they didn’t have a priority in gaining incentives from these students and bragging rights. Evident through these defined circumstances, there is the minimal effort put in by the administration into choosing candidates for these programs that would benefit beyond academics.The overall well-being of the students coerced into these programs are not being prioritized. 

Students who chose to take on AP classes are promised an advanced curriculum that will not only accumulate college credit but also will be structured and administrated by individuals who can guide them through the difficulties of the extended work. Neither of these promises are met as students are often confused and overwhelmed in their work with no one to turn to. As the students’ own high school offers these courses they are also promised that their overall health will be prioritized over their academic success; which it never is. Improperly-placed students often fail their AP classes, and those who pass don’t necessarily thrive in college. AP / DE programs can’t provide every aspect of student success and overall healthy well-being. These programs have the potential to be effective, however, mental, social, physical, and mental effects on students are blatantly ignored. Looking at Hallet’s text ” Is Increased Access Enough?…”, he states that: ” The connection between the competition of an AP course and college success has been in question. Students who complete an AP course do not necessarily experience success in college.”  Once students achieve more than academic success for their overall well-being, these programs will be effective.

Having adequate grades in school does not indicate that a student will be successful in these programs. There are many factors that are not considered when conducting evaluations for eligibility such as emotional, mental, social, or physical equipment for these programs. To verify, “High School Dual Enrollment Programs…’ written by Cecelia Speroni  states: “To be eligible for Dual Enrollment in Florida, students are required to have a minimum unweighted GPA of 3.0 and to demonstrate college readiness on the College Placement Test.” Since students are entering a completely new atmosphere of learning and tackling highly advanced work, more research has to be done with a student before they can be deemed eligible for these programs. Assumed eligibility is misleading to students and parents causing students to enter programs that they aren’t prepared for.

Time pressures threaten students in these programs with burnout while depriving them of any chance of a social life, a part-time job, or extracurriculars. Once enrolled in DE 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. AP students have an abundant amount of homework and studying therefore their time at home with family and friends are 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. AP/DE are dangerous for students because it provides an extreme time burden. 

Imed Bouchrika identifies the problem of the toxic inconvenience of DE in ” AP vs Dual Enrollment….” 

Dual Enrollment  classes can be harder to attend. While there are those that offer these programs on their high school campuses and within regular school days, many programs offer a mixed situation where a class could have different locations depending on the day. It may even fall on hours after school or on a weekend. Even though there are financial aid and other resources allocated to these programs, it is almost sure that you have to spend on them yourself.

 Overbearing time commitments can prevent students from joining after-school clubs or sports, part-time jobs or internships, and even family time and social lives leading to emotional, social, mental, and physical consequences. Students need to have a balance in their lives between work, school, and play, and these programs fail to provide students with a fair balance. Programs that neglect needed balance to ensure stable well-being are not benefitting anyone.

AP/DE courses benefit schools more than they benefit students. The courses offer schools bragging rights along with, in some cases, paid incentives. Children who would most benefit from these programs find them unavailable or do not qualify to partake in them. The students who do partake in them often endure unnecessary stress and anxiety. As Shannon M. Suldo in her article “Examining Gifted Students Mental Health” states: “Many areas of life contribute to students’ happiness.”No program that purports to benefit students can base its “success narratives” on academic achievement alone. A truly successful program would look to adhere to a student both academically and mentally. These programs have been structured to benefit the students, rather they are built in the interest of the schools. 

Another reason administration encourages students to take AP/DE 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/ DE courses to gain this bonus. Schools also enjoy statistical bragging rights from high numbers of AP/DE enrollments. They publicize these numbers to promote enrollment. Administration pressures students into thinking they need to take these courses so that they can gain these benefits. 

AP/DE courses would be better for students if they were to mimic the features of SpEd programs. SpEd in high schools is formatted to a degree that benefits the student’s overall well-being. For instance, there is much more consistent devotion and persistence in special education teachers than in regular education. LaRon A. Scott in her article “Why Do They Stay..” further emphasizes this by stating that “among the factors contributing to teacher persistence, many are unclear.” She goes on to admit that SpEd is a difficult job, but, since teachers have a strong devotion to their students, they aren’t as inclined to simply leave. Special education teachers care about their students’healtadmits that SpEd is a difficult job, but teachers aren’t as inclined to simply leave since they have a strong devotion to their students and overall well-being, whereas AP/DE teachers don’t care enough.

SpEd teachers are knowledgeable about students’ emotional, physical, and mental needs,, not just their academic ones. After all the “Masters in Art Teaching Guide”states that “there are no special qualifications to teach AP classes.” There is no additional education, certifications, or degrees needed from to teach an AP/DE class. Special education teachers are taught specifically how to be SpEd teachers, whereas AP/DE teachers aren’t taught specifically how to teach higher education to high school students. AP/DE students would benefit greatly from receiving “specialized care” which would account for their needs beyond academics, similar to the care that is offered to SpEd students by their teachers. In order to achieve such a level of supportive assistance these teachers, like SpEd teachers, would have to be certified in areas beyond content, which they currently are not. Whether apparent in the students’ academic performance or not, every student in every educational institution needs nurturing to strive, especially highly competitive and stressful environments such as those typically seen in AP/DE classrooms.

A class atmosphere is very important to a student’s success in SpEd classrooms. Research has been conducted to advance the special needs educational environment in the format of “Inclusion Education, “ as described in Gaolin Cai’s “Special Education—An Education…”, “the program specializes in creating environments where special needs students can remain with their non-special needs peers and still get the additional aid they need”. Although this program is a work-in-progress it proves that the academic atmosphere should also be an atmosphere of physical and emotional well-being. SpEd ensures that students learn in an environment they are comfortable with. AP/DE courses don’t consider the environment in which the student is working at all. 

SpEd students get much more positive attention and support from their parents than student’s who are in AP/DE do from their parents. Alfie Kohn’s work ” Only for My Kid” states that parents of gifted children in higher education programs often referred to as “gifted parents,” tend to “jettison their own children’s moral, social, artistic, emotional, and other forms of development in favor of a narrow academic agenda.” These parents subconsciously prioritize the academic success of the student while undermining other important aspects of the student such as their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. In comparison, special education parents prioritize the well-being of their children over their academic performance. AP/DE courses should offer opportunities for the student to leave the program when parents realize the negative effects the program is having on their child. Currently there is little to no ability instilled in either AP/DE system to allow a child to leave upon proving they are becoming harmed more than benefitted.

DE courses are wrongly presumed to be good for all gifted students because they receive  adequate grades already in school. Gifted students are likely to fit this category of students because they are repeatedly assessed and prove they need a more challenging curriculum to fulfill their academic needs. Talented students, those who perform well in school but are not as highly assessed and dependent on additional work, can also be considered a likely candidates for these programs. Cecilia Speroni, exploits through an examination of her study the broad extent of individuals this selection process can involve “Are We Fast-Tracking Students Too Fast?”

…estimates only speak to the local effect of Dual Enrollment among students on the margin of eligibility and may not be representative of the gains from participation for students with different academic preparation. In addition, the two analyses inevitably draw inferences from different sets of students, and I cannot rule out the possibility of Dual Enrollment impact heterogeneity concerning students’ characteristics, in addition to the subject area or quality of the DE experience.

Administration encourages students to take AP/DE courses because they are ignorant of potential risks. As George Wachowiak in his article “ Dual Enrollment experiences: Perceptions and readiness for post-secondary education“, says that 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 ineffectiveness of these programs and the damage they can cause. 

Students who chose to partake in AP/DE courses do so based on recommendations from ignorant, external, influential individuals. Parents, being one of these groups of individuals, often believe that giving their children more challenging work will only benefit them and open opportunities because it is assumed their student’s success, health, happiness, and well-being will be determined by academic standing. Surface-level thinking such as this fosters negligent behavior by the parent and is dangerous to the student’s emotional and mental well-being. 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 says 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. 

Because high-achieving students are presumed to be self-sufficient, they receive little if any support for the demanding workload of their advanced courses. Depression, anxiety, and even worse mental health problems are inevitable for students who aren’t taught techniques to manage their time, deal with stress, or tackle harder work. Academically, they could be thriving, but they could be immensely suffering in other areas of their life. 

Teachers in both programs are unreliable resources because they are not required to take any additional training to teach advanced education. As a DE student you have two sets of teachers, high school teachers and college professors. It can be detrimental for a high school student to have a professor while still in high school because they will be taught without accountability for their disadvantages. Some issues a high school student could have can include travel distance and time, being overwork by  high school work and extracurriculars, mental capacity differences, and even maturity differences between high school and college students. Not to mention that a highschool student is a senior while partaking in this program, which is likely, they are dealing with the multiple stresses of choosing colleges and future careers. College professors are not given any additional resources on how to teach high school students advanced material. There are way too many differences between teaching high school versus  college students which are not recognized in these programs. 

AP students also face many difficulties when taking a harder course with an unfit teacher. AP teachers are merely ordinary high school teachers who teach advanced work alongside their regular classes. Students are expected to be taught harder information by a teacher that doesn’t understand the subject beyond basic information and book-provided answers. Teachers of these programs do not need to receive any additional training or qualifications to teach these students. As a result of this they may find it difficult to understand and teach the content. Teachers might also run into problems teaching students dealing with increased stress and mental health concerns.Due to the efficiency of AP teacher recruiting in high schools AP students are left blindly turning to other unreliable resources for information such as friends and YouTube.  In order for these programs to advance  the well-being of the student teachers would need to have particular additional training to teach advanced students and offer them aid with their array of concerns.

Teachers of DE courses are unfit to teach high school students despite promises of undivided support. A student lacks a support system from educators because students don’t have adequate access to the professors in their dual-enrollment classes. Allison Kanny states in his article Dual Enrollment Participation from the Student Perspective, ” Students’ discussion of limited support received from the high school staff during their time at City College underscores the need for more purposeful and structured support systems to be implemented for dual enrollment students.” Proper administration for students is a minor detail of these programs that are often not recognized or even overlooked. 

Colleges often deny these overachieving students college credit for the courses they worked so hard to pass. 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. DE 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.

 In the worst cases, these classes kill gifted students.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 is a low number, no student should ever have to experience such a level of dissatisfaction in their life as a result of their school work. This statistic not only speaks to the idea that AP is hard but also recognizes 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.

The programs fail low-income students by underserving them. Where they’re available, the programs offer low-income students cheap college credit, often little to nothing. But according to” Is Increased Access Enough?…”  by Ronald Hallett, ” Schools serving low-income students offer significantly fewer AP courses than their counterparts in more affluent communities,” which increases the gap between students who can afford to go to college and those who can’t. AP/ DE programs can’t effectively help those with financial issues if the courses aren’t offered more widely in schools these students attend.

 Even correctly-placed students develop maladaptive strategies to cope with the stress of advanced courses. The stress and anxiety of overworked gifted students in these programs are often invalidated by others. For instance, Shannon Suldo notes in her article “Predictors Of Success Among High School Students in…” that students in AP courses are reported to be exhibiting the following detrimental effects ” maladaptive coping strategies (e.g., procrastination, withdrawal, becoming emotional); they underscored the importance of strong organizational and time management skills to student success, as a general trait in addition to being relevant in times of stress.” These individuals who devotedly promote these programs, claim their child is “ just fine” when these issues start to become apparent. Academic stress is translating into real-life issues for these students and the unfortunate outcome is that the student will receive no relief or support.

I recommend that AP/ DE courses should be designed with the same rigor afforded to SpEd courses, including the careful preparation and extra certifications required for faculty AND the careful deliberation that goes into assigning the curriculum only to students who most need it or can benefit from it. This will create programs for students that truly look out for their best interests and keep their overall well-being as a main priority.

References

An NCPR working paper high school dual enrollment programs: Are we … – ed. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2022, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED527527.pdf 

AP vs. Dual Enrollment: The Pros & Cons of each program. Research.com. (2022, October 5). Retrieved November 21, 2022, from https://research.com/education/ap-vs-dual-enrollment 

Cai, G., Wei, Z., & Wong, Y. (2022, January 17). Special education-an education programme still in input. Special Education-An Education Programme Still in Input | Atlantis Press. Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/sdmc-21/125968450 

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

Do teachers need special qualifications to teach AP classes? Master of Arts in Teaching Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.masterofartsinteaching.net/faq/do-teachers-need-special-qualifications-to-teach-ap-classes/ 

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

Kanny, M.A. (2015), Dual Enrollment Participation From the Student Perspective. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2015: 59-70. https://doi.org/10.1002/cc.20133

(2012, May 29) LaRon A. Scott. Why Do They Stay? Factors Associated With Special Education Teachers’ Persistence from SAGE Publications Inc. (2022, January 14). Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/journals 

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

Only for my kid – scottmcleod.org. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2022, from http://scottmcleod.org/1998%20-%20PDK%20-%20Only%20For%20MY%20Kid.pdf 

Suldo, S. M., Hearon, B. V., & Shaunessy-Dedrick, E. (2018). Examining gifted students’ mental health through the lens of positive psychology. In S. I. Pfeiffer, E. Shaunessy-Dedrick, & M. Foley-Nicpon (Eds.), APA handbook of giftedness and talent (pp. 433–449). American Psychological Association.

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

Venegas, K. (2022, July 12). Is increased access enough? Advanced Placement courses, quality, and success in low-income urban schools. Journal for the Education of the Gifted. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/4414551/Is_Increased_Access_Enough_Advanced_Placement_Courses_Quality_and_Success_in_Low_Income_Urban_Schools?auto=citations&from=cover_page 

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