Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Should we be impressed by Hispanics who ace AP Spanish?

Jay Mathews discusses this on his blog.

I think the key point here is that AP test are meant to signal intelligence and effort. Most kids don't learn calculus, physics or Latin at home, so if they ace they test it signals to college their aptitude. AP Spanish doesn't have this effect for native speakers because all the work was done in the distant past, and because it is so easy for children to learn language it wasn't hard work.

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