Reflection #5: ‘‘I’m Not Going to Be, Like, for the AP’’: English Language Learners’ Limited Access to Advanced College-Preparatory Courses in High School

I found this article to be particularly interesting.  Not many people really delve into the issues of ELLs not accessing the AP classes.  I particularly found this article helpful in my situation, as I feel our students have been underestimated for quite some time.  I have a senior graduating high school with Algebra 1 his highest level of math, making him very upset, as he wanted more out of his high school education, but we failed to set him up for success.  These situations we put students in are many times completely unfair and inappropriate but seems like the easiest fix at the time.  I know scheduling my students has been a huge struggle; we are working with a schedule that offers a specific math class only once throughout the day, making it necessary to plan around that class entirely.

With all of the challenges we face in scheduling students, we, the counselors and advisors need to work hard to schedule students into appropriate classes, as we are the determining factor.  Students and parents rarely disagree with recommendations, so we need to challenge students, keep them engaged, and keep them interested in learning more.