After the completion of their Advanced Placement (AP) exams, local students in AP classes did little more in the final weeks of the school year than wait for it to end.
Because of the passage of Proposition 30, LAUSD added a week to the calendar to make up for budget-cutting furlough days earlier in the year. However, these days did not have much purpose for AP students who simply wanted summer vacation to begin.
Teachers, who catered to the AP exams and curriculum throughout the year, played movies, held potluck parties and assigned superfluous group projects. For the many students enrolled in a full slate of APs, it became almost unnecessary to come to school.
Interviewed during the penultimate week, student Haledim Kim said, “I come to school, watch several movies, and go home… I’ve been able to use this free time to study for the SAT and ACT, but quite frankly, there’s absolutely no difference in coming to school or staying at home.”
Her classmate, Daniel Allen, says he enjoyed having “time to relax and enjoy some time with classmates and teachers” after “…the stress of having to learn an entire course before the exams.”
Although younger students may have benefitted from the extra time, it is clear that the extra days did not benefit AP students in any academic way. It may have been wiser for LAUSD to accept the furlough days as lost and use the Proposition 30 money for a different purpose.
Daniel Lee
Daniel Kangmin Lee is a 12th grader at LACES High School and a returning student editor for the JSR program.
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