Quotes: College Board President Once Mocked Personal Writing

Johnson, I need a market analysis by Friday, but before that I need a compelling account of your childhood. -- Controversial remarks past from incoming College Board president David Coleman

Comments

[Bruce]

This is an unattractive quote, but perhaps we ought to go easy on the practice of finding the least appealing attribute of people being newly introduced and emphasizing that attribute. The balance of the article was favorable to Mr. Coleman, I think, and in particular, if we can actually implement the vision of doing away with the SAT and replacing it with an improvement based on the Core standards (although I don't think those mathematics standards are a significant improvement), that would be an immediate positive contribution to the College Board and the country.

[Sarah]

“The College Board should consider any student in an AP class a student in our care,” said Mr. Coleman, a co-founder at Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit organization that promotes the common core. “We need to find better ways to support their success.”

If he really means that, that "any student in an AP class" is a student in the College Board's care, my mom would like her money back! My younger brother just took his AP physics exam. A month before the exam, the teacher was fired. The school couldn't find a suitable replacement to finish up the material the class hadn't learned for the AP exams, so the essay questions on that exam were all on material the students hadn't learned. As a result, the entire class is thinking they've failed. Come July, we'll know for sure.

After talking with a college classmate, she said that same thing happened to her. Her teacher quit a month before the AP exam and she ended up getting a 2 because she didn't know the material. I realize the College Board has no control over what teachers and school districts do, but if he's saying all AP students are students in the College Board's care, they have to start looking at this issue.