Are too many students being pushed into advanced placement and honors classes without proper preparation?
No. The complaints I have heard are that too many parents who want their children to take advanced placement and honors classes have been told that those students should not or cannot take those classes. I think we should provide parents with objective assessments regarding their child’s capability and proper placement, but children ‘‘on the bubble” between regular and honors classes should be afforded the opportunity to attempt the work. We should also be very clear in communicating, as early as third grade, what sort of courses, preparation, and student performance will be necessary to enable the child to succeed in advanced placement and honors courses. We need much more — and much more direct — communication with parents about what the system offers and how they can access it. This communication needs to take place not just at an invitational forum that requires parents and students to ‘‘opt in” but as part of mandatory, person to person communication between local school administr
