Crossing the Line: How the Academic Rat Race Is Making Our Kids Sick

[antigop]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicki-abeles/education-stress_b_5341256.html

Last winter, I watched my daughter, a high school senior, survive an anxiety-ridden few weeks leading up to final exams, beset with the flu, little sleep and constant studying. With that done, she switched to incessantly monitoring her grades online, fearing that her hopes of becoming a veterinarian ride on these numbers. And I had to ask: Is this what childhood has come to?

As a mother of three, I've seen the physical and emotional toll that the soul-bruising college admissions contest takes on our children -- and not only on the straight-A types bound for the Ivy Leagues (my daughter is a B student). By the time many students reach high school, their daily routine will include seven or more hours of school, plus two hours of school-sponsored sports or activities, plus the inevitable third shift -- three or four or even five hours of homework a night.

We convince ourselves that it's all for a worthy goal: achieving the magic algorithm of scores and activities that reportedly add up to admission at a top college. But as we've encouraged our students to pursue this, we've pushed them into unhealthy and unhappy patterns that are harming a whole generation.

A survey released this year by the American Psychological Association found that, during the school year, teens report feeling stress levels even higher than what adults report. Since the 1950s, adolescent suicides have quadrupled, and eating disorders are epidemic. And a 2012 University of Michigan study found that one in 10 high school sophomores and nearly one in eight seniors admitted to using a "study drug" that was not prescribed by a doctor. Another study, in the Journal of Adolescent Health, reported that a vast majority of teens get at least two hours less sleep each night than what's recommended for their age.

In short, we are raising a generation of chronically sleep-deprived, anxious, caffeine-addled kids who believe that grades, rankings, AP and SAT scores, and -- of course -- college admissions are the ultimate measure of their worth.

"Race to Nowhere" trailer:

[exboyfil]

1. Neither one of my kids is doing

Advanced Placement. I am paying for them to do community college classes instead. Admission is relatively easy into our state colleges so they have no stress with that regard. Merit money is difficult to get (my older daughter is an exceptional student going into a major with few women - mechanical engineering- and she only got about half of her first year tuition in scholarships). The key is that we try to double count every possible community college class (for high school and college). This not only reduces the stress, but it cuts time off the back end of their time in college (2 1/2 years for my older daughter and possibly less than two years for my younger daughter who is looking at an accelerated BSNursing program). Another advantage is that you can split finals (college finals coming before the high school ones). Online classes also allow a student to control their time better by selecting, within a window, when to take an exam.

It is not a measure of worth. It is a matter of dollars. You can accomplish pretty much the same thing with a degree from a flagship state school as you can from an exclusive private school without the additional stress (this may not be the case in states like Michigan and Virginia though). I am thankful for our three state schools.

[antigop]

2. in my state, a lot of the highschools give weighted credit for AP, but not dual credit.

So if you take a dual credit class instead of an AP class, your GPA will be less than a student who gets the same grade in an AP class.

The highschool students feel "forced" into taking AP so they can have a better class ranking due to weighted credit for AP classes.

I think this is wrong.

[exboyfil]

3. Our school is unusual in that

it is straight scale 4.0. I suspect it was easier for my daughter to get As in her community college classes than the AP course at the High School, but some of her university classes were much harder than anything at the high school. She lost class ranking for an A- in Mechanics of Materials which is a sophomore/junior engineering level class in which only 15% of the class got an A.

The whole AP thing is pernicious because many of the more elite universities don't even accept the credit, but you cannot get into the university without taking the hardest offerings at your high school (you would be better to go to a high school which does not have an AP program). That means you are repeating the content in which you beat your head on in high school. You sometimes end of taking two AP tests in the same day which is incredibly stressful (imagine spending a year studying a class and getting nothing for it).

I was talking with my niece tonight at my daughter's graduation open house. She took AP Composition in high school which did absolutely nothing for her at her university or the university in which my daughter will be attending. My daughter took Comp I and Comp II at a community college so she won't have a composition class at a the university. AP Biology does not satisfy any science or engineering degree requirements. You have to get a 4 or 5 to even get one semester of Chemistry (my daughter took Chemistry I at our regional university instead). The AP Psychology takes a year to get one semester credit. The AP Calculus class takes a year to get one semester credit (you also have to take a Precalculus class first so it is a 1 1/2 year investment for one semester).

In Iowa the universities have strong articulation agreements with the community colleges. That way you know what classes count towards a degree before you take them. That is good and bad. No doubt my daughter has had a couple of classes which are not sufficiently rigorous enough to prepare her for getting As in upper engineering classes, but on the other hand I am working with her to prepare for those engineering classes. Her Engineering Physics II course had 23 students in it - 22 of them were sophomore-senior engineering majors at the university she will be attending, while she, as the 23rd, was a high school senior.

It is the mission of colleges to slow you down and force you to take as long as possible to get your degree. I pushed really hard to get my daughter scheduled in her first semester classes (two junior and two sophomore engineering classes). Without me pushing I feel it is likely that they would have told her that these courses were closed.

I know my daughter had a much more relaxing final semester than many of her peers. She really only had one class which pushed her (Engineering Statistics). Most of her semester was wrapped up when AP test taking time rolled around.

[knitter4democracy]

4. College admissions people make them re-figure that.

I don't know of a single college or university that takes weighted GPAs. They all make the schools refigure the grades based on straight 4.0 scale. That's why both numbers show up on the transcript and why the admissions page makes sure to point out that the GPA ranges they list are based on unweighted numbers.

The only possible help would come from scholarship applications, and even many of those require a real GPA, not a weighted one.

[antigop]

5. The weighted gpa impacts your class ranking, nt

[knitter4democracy]

6. Which gets you squat in most colleges.

If you're in the top 10% or whatever, you might get a small scholarship. More and more of those scholarships really aren't worth much any more, and frankly, you can get more with a good essay or two you recycle and reuse for many scholarship applications.

[antigop]

7. in Texas, if you are in the top 10% you get automatic admission to state colleges

You don't have to worry about your SAT score or ACT score.
http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/index.cfm?objectid=6D0B8C2F-C987-12B0-27CAFED91FACC7FB

If you’re in the top 10% of your high school graduating class, you’re eligible for automatic admission to any public university in Texas. To meet the requirements for automatic admission, you must:

Graduate in the top 10% of your class at a public or private high school in Texas, or
Graduate in the top 10% of your class from a high school operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and be a Texas resident or eligible to pay resident tuition;
Enroll in college no more than two years after graduating from high school; and
Submit an application to a Texas public university for admission before the application deadline. (Check with the university for specific deadlines).


If you’re admitted to college through the Top 10% Rule, you may still be required to provide SAT or ACT scores, but these scores are not used for admissions purposes. You must also take the THEA test, unless you’re exempt from the test requirement. Be sure to check with the school's admissions office regarding THEA, SAT and ACT requirements. (For general information on SAT, ACT and THEA, click on “The Tests You’ll Need.”)

So the goal is to get into the top 10% so you you get automatic admission. To get into the top 10% you need to take AP classes to bump up your gpa.

Also, college applications ask for your class ranking. If they didn't look at it as a factor for admission, they wouldn't need to ask for it.

[knitter4democracy]

10. I could see this if you're in Texas.

Many states that had similar programs have since cut them due to lack of funds.

Sure, colleges ask about it, but honestly, from what I have been told by admissions reps (I usually teach junior and senior English and work with admissions reps to get my kids into the programs they want), it's either not a consideration or such a small one when all else is figured in.

[antigop]

8. fwiw......

In my experience I have found the parents defending AP the most are the ones who pushed their kids too far.

They want to brag that their kid is taking xxxx number of AP classes. And their kids are depressed, stressed out, and burned out.

See "Race to Nowhere". I am not the only one who has seen the impact on our kids.

It's abuse...

[knitter4democracy]

9. Amen to that. AP parents are a whole 'nother bunch.

Don't get me wrong, I love working with the vast majority of them, but there are those few...