I teach one this year. Taught a different one last year. (That is not a pleasant experience, two different AP courses for one year each in two consecutive years. With no advance notice and no APSI.)
I have no state standardized tests. I have no district tests. I tell the district scope & sequence to go and diddly itself. My district wants me to account for how what I teach matches district and state standards--sorry, I teach AP, eff off. I have state standards for teaching the on-level course ... Teaching AP, I genuflect weekly before the CED, the Course and Exam Description, and flip the bird at the state standards. I serve a higher god, it seems, than my principal, district, or state.
Even when my appraiser dumps kids in a class without a substitute in my classroom--they know to behave themselves. On-level bottom-feeder-course students plunged into an AP course? Crap, my AP students should toe the line so well. He knows not to disrupt *my* class. (This makes me queasy, by the way. For me, privilege = a chance to screw myself.)
I am paid by my district and my school, but nothing in my classroom--besides management and state law as far as how to treat students--is controlled by my state. And since my area is a bit scarce, I could drool and babble about sheep augury in my science class and get "excellent" on my evaluation.
By district diktat, any time after the AP exam must be dedicated to covering the state standards not, in my opinion, covered in the AP CED. Crap, that's half the state standards, I'm not *that* doddering. Then I realized how toothless that diktat was. This year my district's review days, when all instruction of new content must end, begin two days after the AP test. And my district-mandated test day is the day after the test, giving me no time to teach anything new before testing. That extra day? Maybe we'll talk about what they didn't learn. Or sit and I'll play a Dr. Who episode (Tennant, natch) that nobody'll understand but me.
My district and the state are not happy that half the state required standards are not taught. However, they are powerless, as the state of Texas and a large district in Harris County, TX, to dispute College Board. It *dictates* what I will teach in my classroom. And it does so with more than a bit more detail than the State of Texas (or my district) does. Corporate might and all that.
Now, imagine that College Board told my state and my district and my high school, "Sorry, not telling you what's to be taught."
On principle I'd say, "No." At least my state/district knows I'm teaching half the required content for a standard course. Not knowing what I was teaching for a course the state was expected to issue state credit for, having no knowledge of the content? "We're effing College Board, kneel while I lower my zipper" is *not* adequate. I can't believe any college would issue credit for it. Score at 6 out of 5 on the exam? Sorry. Accreditation mean anything? (Ah, the accreditation boards are also subservient to the corporation. My state has elections; the corporation does not. Not a fan of much of TX politics, I'm not opposed to democracy to follow corporations when it suits my politics. On principle.)
BTW, my school offers the pilot course. I have some of her students in my AP course. Far fewer this semester than last. Beyond that, FERP.
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