AP testing in Back of the Yards is not what your suburban upbringing may have led you to think of when you think of AP tests. We're talking about a whole different experience here. That other thing that people think of still exists in places like New Trier High School on the North Shore, but we're talking about a school in one of the ghettos of Chicago. It's a miracle that an Advanced Placement program exists at all, and that any of the students are successful in such an endeavor. Yet they are.
For the record, I'm that teacher with an administrative certificate who somehow can't seem to get hired for a full-time administrative job. I have my opinions on why this is so, but I shall remain mum on that point. Nevertheless, I serve as a boon to the full-time administrators in my school. I can be counted on to teach a full load and then when there is a need for someone with administrative expertise for special projects, I can be counted on to follow through. When they needed an evening school program, I started it and ran it until the funding ran out. When they needed an AP program I built it from the ground up and have administered it ever since.
As it happens, in the first year of my newly minted AP program, I taught AP U.S. History and took care of the administration of said program and ran the testing, a one man band. I talked an English teacher into the preparation necessary to teach AP English Lit and voila we had a second course. I talked a math teacher into the prep necessary and next thing you know we had an AP Statistics course. Been working on the science department for going on 4 or 5 years and we still don't have a commitment to an AP course from that corner of the building. Did I mention that the ACT scores in science in our building are dismal? Anyway, I eventually talked another history teacher into taking over the AP teaching load in U.S. History and I became simply the Coordinator for the program.
I've been trying to get an AP Spanish Language or Literature program at our school for the last three years. One teacher who did the prep got mad at the Principal and took a job at another school. One teacher who said she'd do the prep didn't. One teacher who is the head of the ESL and Language Department has done the necessary preparation, but administration can't commit to giving him the A.P. class because they don't know if he'll be needed to teach nothing but ESL when downtown cuts teaching positions next year, due to budgetary concerns. Two-thirds of our student population is Spanish speaking. This is a "Duh Factor" class and yet school administration and downtown administration can't seem to get on board to make it happen.
And that's just administrative woes. Let's talk about the actual testing. First of all, 98-99% of all students in this high school in Back of the Yards qualify for "Free or Reduced Lunch." What that means is that these kids come from families who qualify for Federal Poverty Guidelines. The College Board gives a fee reduction for kids from families who meet poverty guidelines. The State of Illinois picks up another chunk of the cost of AP testing for these kids. They're usually late with their payments and in one year we were denied the right to give tests because the College Board hadn't been paid from the previous year. Okay it wasn't all on the State of Illinois. The Chicago Public Schools arcane payment system was partly to blame as well.
At any rate, after the fee reductions from the College Board and the supplements from the State of Illinois, the school itself picks up the rest of the cost of the exams for the kids. They pay zero. Rich suburban kids are paying the full fee themselves, but then most of them can afford it and an awful lot of them have parents with college degrees. We have parents who are high school dropouts and a number of new immigrants from Latin America who speak little or no English.
Meanwhile a small cadre of students who navigate the gang infested streets and communities of the Southside of Chicago manage to survive and thrive despite all odds. They work hard. They get good grades. They manage to position themselves to take AP classes and get scholarships and move up and out. So let the testing begin.
Well, we do run into some problems. I had to order late testing for one student because it turns out she was 9+ months pregnant and had labor induced last weekend. The new mother was not able to make her AP exams, but hopes to be primed and ready during the late testing period week after next. Because we had ordered an exam for her, the school pays a $12 fee for the returned test and a $40 fee for the late test that will be given. Five other students who suddenly realized they don't know squat about statistics neglected to show for the AP Statistics exam. 5 X $12=$60 in additional fees for those tests not taken. Many of us shrug at the prospect of say an additional $100-150 dollars tacked on to the school's bill for exams not taken. I often spend that much in a single night at dinner with my wife, but when it comes out of a school budget in a system in economic crisis every penny counts. Do we have the extra money to pick up the tab?
Meanwhile, the school rented a bunch of folding tables to be placed in the gym for PSAE testing last week and I was able to use some of those for the first day of AP testing this week. The Principal decided we couldn't afford to keep the necessary tables for the rest of the week for the AP tests. We're the poor stepchild of the school, apparently. With an hour and a half left in the test in AP Statistics on Tuesday the school engineer suddenly appeared in the gym. He told me that the guys "were here to pick up the tables." After some stern looks and much consternation, he understood that I damned well wasn't turning over any tables until these kids were finished testing, and the "guys" could come back tomorrow to pick up said tables. The engineer left and calculator button pushing, pencil twirling, and the odd nose picking continued.
I had to find enough tables within the building to replace the rented tables. This involved coaxing, cajoling, and pleading with the engineering and janitorial staff at the school to get a bunch of rickety old junk tables moved into the gym. As I understand it the janitorial staff got a few boys from a class with a substitute to actually move the tables, with a promise of "Service Learning Hours." Today we tested on tables covered with gang graffiti while sitting on chairs that I pray will last the duration of the test. The fans in the gym blew at gale force for the entire duration. Then during Division (Homeroom for non-Chicagoans) the P.A. system blared the day's announcements. Meanwhile 26 kids tried desperately to concentrate on analysis of fiction and poetry in the AP English Lit exam.
Yes boys and girls, this is not your mother's and father's AP exams. This is not your mother's and father's school. This is not your mother's and father's neighborhood. This is not your mother's and father's world. This is Back of the Yards in 2010, and some of our kids survive and turn out pretty damned well despite it all. Just another example of overpaid, lazy-ass teachers wasting the taxpayers money, right?
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