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Prometheus 6

All respect and no restraint

I'm not feeling clever this morning so I'll just say it

Regent John J. Moores' position that the University of California's comprehensive review policy is unfair because it represents "an unfair advantage to disadvantaged students" would be bizarre if the class war lines weren't already drawn so clearly. That UC already boosts the grade of every student that takes the kind of advanced placement courses that are so common in wealthy districts and so rarely available to disadvantaged students by a point, regardless of how well they actually do in the course, makes the privilege position quite clear: I get everything, you get nothing.

As the L.A. Times implies, these folk aren't interested in fairness.

Twisted beyond reality. Ev

Twisted beyond reality.

Everyone knows what an "AP" class is. It's a class where an A is worth 5 rather than 4, because the class content is more rigorous. Asserting that's some kind of aristocratic mechanism is the same as:

People who work hard already tend to be more wealthy than the population at large, and compensating them at a level beyond that of people who watch TV all day is the crucial power of evil in the class war, making the rich richer and the poor poorer

Everyone knows what an "AP" c


Everyone knows what an "AP" class is.

Really.

Do you know of any other university that accounts for AP classes the same way, rather than as a class that is eligible for college credit, as in NY?

Agreed, I was thinking in a n

Agreed, I was thinking in a narrow context. I almost went back and changed that, because I realized I couldn't claim it works like that everywhere. Universities, particularly universities which are not funded by the state granting the AP credit, are generally free to treat them as they choose, and pick a range of treatments.

None the less, it is not in any sense aristocratic beyond various jealous minds. The LA Times agrees that AP credits are useful for predicting success, which is exactly the kind of criterion one should be using to select students.

The LA Times agrees that AP c


The LA Times agrees that AP credits are useful for predicting success

Since we're quoting the L.A Times, it goes on to say:

But AP students who take the courses but don't take the exams, or score poorly, fare no better in college than non-AP students. Yet UC continues to give them the grade boost.

Hm. Apparently merely appearing in the class gets you the extra consideration.

None the less, it is not in any sense aristocratic beyond various jealous minds.

No one says it's aristocratic (quite the opposite, in fact).

The report further notes that despite attempts to bring more AP courses to all high schools, middle-class students still have far more access to these advanced classes.

What it is, is an unfair advantage to already advantaged students.

By "aristocratic", I meant in

By "aristocratic", I meant insular of a privileged class, which is what I took the editorial to be asserting.

Since we're quoting the L.A Times, it goes on to say:

But AP students who take the courses but don't take the exams, or score poorly, fare no better in college than non-AP students. Yet UC continues to give them the grade boost.

What they don't say is that such students are granted admission in preference to students which score high on the exam.

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