Teresa Watanabe Analysis

I’m going to be talking about the following piece by Teresa Watanabe, her main stance is that increasing AP courses offered in school is allowing more access to low income students, however some students are taking the courses without fundamental, adequate academic skills needed in order to succeed. I’ll be critiquing the way AP classes are being offered in a widespread manner nationwide and I’ll be looking at the concept of culture capital, deficit perceptions related to educational achievement, the effects of AP courses as an intervening variable, and cultural straddlers. I argue against allowing students who are not ready the eligibility to participate in AP courses and I will be using Laureau, Wolfram, Klugman, and Carter’s work to prove

The effects of increasing AP courses nationwide has also slightly increased exam failure rate. (Watanabe 1) Some students who enroll in AP courses simply are not academically prepared for the challenges and become overwhelmed with the heavy workload. (Watanabe 1) However, students like Miracle Vitangcol choose to stick out the course because she feels she is learning adequate skills such as time management, note taking, and developing perseverance. Instead of solely having AP courses teaching core social capital skills, all courses taught in educational institutions should be constructed to challenge students and dissipate knowledge on how to succeed. Failing an AP course will not only tremendously lower your GPA, but shows how students who lack certain social capital skills that are typically taught at home such as time management, will struggle to adjust to the dominant institution

Straddlers understand the importance of doing well in classroom settings while also maintaining their cultural background, “Straddlers understand the function of both dominant and nondominant cultural capital and value and embrace skills to participate in multiple cultural environments, including mainstream society, their school environments, and their respective ethnoracial communities.” (Carter 306) Some straddlers are students bused in from poorer neighborhoods to a higher performing school and are given the opportunity to excel in schools who offer a wider breadth of AP classes. Our institution should focus on effectively improving all schools, in poor or rich neighborhoods, to have higher academic standards and test scores. Our schools should improve in such a way that students shouldn’t have to be bused in from other schools, their own school in their community will provide impeccable teaching. Straddlers, non-compliant believes, and mainstreamers should all learn to value education equally. Offering challenge courses to further push a student is not something to rule out, however students must have the drive and motivation to do better for themselves. Schools should consist of teachers who are ready to motivate and encourage students to be the best of their ability. Our AP courses should expand to include different cultures and test a wider range of knowledge, instead of