Defending Academic Excellence and Freedom in the Classroom

From the business world to the Olympic stadium, Bridgewater students are truly world-class and every student deserves an opportunity to achieve their fullest potential in school. This should be a core part of our mission as a school district.

As I campaign and meet families across Bridgewater Township, one recurring conversation topic has been raised to me repeatedly: programs that worked well and contributed to our tradition of academic excellence are being changed. One example of this is the change to our district’s guidelines for AP courses and AP exams.

In the middle of the school year, high school students found out that they couldn’t register for AP exams the same way their predecessors had been able to in the past. The new guidelines exclude students from registering for AP exams in BRHS if they are not taking corresponding AP courses which will impact the many students that self-study for AP exams and require them to take these exams elsewhere. I hope the district will listen to students, consider their needs, and allow them to take AP exams in our high school.

The new guidelines also restrict the number of AP courses students can take by requiring all courses to fit in the student’s daily schedule with self-study counting as a block. This essentially limits the number of AP courses highly motivated students are able to take. Given that our high school day ends around 2 PM, there is plenty of time for motivated students to study more if they chose to self-study for AP exams. By requiring all courses to fit in a school day schedule, this guideline restricts student academic freedom.

The new guidelines also eliminate the option of taking online physical education (PE). It might sound odd to have online PE, but we have many talented students who participate in athletic activities that exceed the physical activity requirements for PE. The reality is that online gym classes provide flexibility to student schedules and learning styles, particularly to students who have AP science courses with extra lab periods. Students deserve to have the option to take an online gym class if it allows them to pursue other activities that they want to pursue.

These recent guideline changes seem to have been enacted unilaterally from the administration without adequate communication and I have heard complaints about this from both students and teachers. I relate and empathize with students who are upset about these changes and believe that students should be able to have more options and less limitations when it comes to education. We should be supporting all students at all levels, and even if it's a small group of students, we should not ignore their needs by restricting their access to learning. Why can’t students strive to achieve their fullest potential? Is curiosity no longer encouraged in our schools? To suggest that students should be limited in their ability to pursue subjects they are passionate about in school goes against our tradition of education excellence our district had been known for.

On top of this, many students rely on AP credits to offset the significant cost of a college degree. As a student at Rutgers University, I was able to save significant sums of money to attend college because of the many AP credits I was able to apply towards my degree. I’m thankful that I had this opportunity to take various AP courses as it allowed me to ease the financial burden of getting a college degree on me and my family. Since these AP credits play such an important role in helping many families save money, it makes far more sense to increase AP curriculum flexibility in our high school rather than to restrict it.

As a district, we should be promoting policies that encourage students to pursue their interests and passions, not limiting them. We should be giving students the opportunity to self-study and take exams in subjects they desire to learn more about, not limiting them from diving into subjects they have not received explicit formal classroom instruction on. Every student should be supported and given an opportunity to realize their full potential in our schools.

*UPDATE:

According to a new communication released by the district, upperclassmen have been permitted to self-study for one AP course this year for a course taught at our high school.

While I support these changes and believe that this is a step in the right direction, the reality is that it's unfair to freshmen and sophomores who are EQUALLY CAPABLE of achieving the same levels of excellence as their upperclassmen. As a board member, I am COMMITTED TO PROTECTING SELF-STUDY OPTIONS.

I believe that if students believe they are capable of a substantial AP course load that they should be offered the opportunity to take on that challenge.