“It has become fashionable to offer AP courses at inner city high schools even though these classes are often taught by unqualified teachers to unqualified students who never take the AP tests or if they do take the tests fail them.”

AND

“I would be surprised if any of the Santee teachers have had their courses approved by the College Board. Unfortunately the best students at a school like Santee would be considered only average at an OC high school and typically unqualified for AP courses.

Maybe the principal knows something that we don’t. It would be good to get his side of the story”

I teach at SANTEE and both of my courses were APPROVED by the College Board. Unqualified, well ok, what are POKEY’s qualifications? (in anything). How many inner city students has he/she gotten to pass an AP test. Last year, 2007, I had 3 pass with 3’s and 7 get 2’s and many more got 1’s. So yeah I’m no Jaime Escalante but I’m doing my best and it gives me great pleasure to know my students who passed their AP exams took the same test that kids at SAN MARINO HS or NEWPORT HARBOR HS, who have parent thats pay for tutors and have BMW’s to drive to school! So yes I know many people say why bother trying, but we either believe in equal opportunity or we don’t. I understand taxpayer frustration at how much is spent with so little return (kids who can’t read or compute by the time of their HS graduation)and the Public Educational system has serious problems and needs reforming but there are kids here who have real talent and they deserve a chance. They may need an extra boost to give them a shot at the American Dream. Does the principal know something we don’t, come work for him and find out for yourself, he’s a lemon!

Also, remember the principal didn’t change AP History to regular History. He changed it to “Cinema.” That’s not about quality.

Any school, however awful, has some students who are motivated and capable. They deserve a chance to learn academic subjects.

About fictionalizing your good arrest stories, well, somebody’s got to give Michael Connelly some competition. And there are a lot of literary folk who believe the best way to get to the deepest truths is through the vehicle of good “fiction”—i.e. fact disguised as fiction. (But I write nonfiction, so what do I know?)

******
Ms Fremon
Why do I want to fictionalize when I got good arrest stories?

When I got my admissions paperwork from the the University, it said, “special action” on the top right hand corner. When I got my financial aid paperwork (loan agreements), it said “specal action” on the top right hand corner. When I got my housing paperwork and meal plan applications everything said “special action” on the top right on corners. Everywhere I went, people looked at me funny and stated, “I’ve never seen this before, this special action thing.”
When I ran out of money and my gas & lights got cut off, I walked over to the EOP building seeking a counselor for extra financial assistance. They tried their best to help me out but were limited to a $1,500 emergency loan. After reviewing my admission paperwork and loan information via computer, all the latino and black counselors huddled together and kept saying, “wow” – “wow” ..”wow”
Finally, one of them looked over at me and said, “you a real walking affirmative action and probably the last.”

According to them, Affirmative Action was only used by the UC schools on special circumstances. Almost all minorities students are admitted on their own merits and under the regular admissions process. Seats are reserved yearly for certain number of minority groups that can qualify on the normal admission process and held until they are fulfilled or not. Again to emphasize, these seats were not connected in anyway to the Affirmative Action program. Today, those seats are still held for various minorities groups that qualify under the normal applicantion process. If they are not filled, they just get thrown back into the general pot.
Affirmative Action is only used on special circumstances and everyone knows you got in via Affirmative Action. Its stamped and written all over your freaking paperwork. So, to cut this short, the counselors stated that I was not taking a seat from a possible applicant but that the UC was actually creating an extra seat for me. According to the counselor, this “action” is tracked and monitored closely by the UC regents and in Sacramento. You just dont give out an Affimative Action spot like its a tootsie roll.