Yes, really, feast your eyes upon this (screenshotted from an email I received.)

It seems the College Board, if we can still call them that, maybe we should call them K12, nope, somebody already claimed that trademark, wants to sell curriculum to school districts.

Maybe somebody needs to tell David Coleman that the states have moved on from Common Core. There’s no one agreed-upon set of standards for secondary math education upon whose foundation a single curriculum can be built.

But curiosity getting the better of me, I went ahead and took the survey. If the College Board wants to send me a $10 gift card, it will be the only little nicety I will get of out coordinating 2,400 tests each year for the last two I worked.

For that number of tests, College Board sends a $3,000 rebate check to the school. In order to receive it, the AP Coordinator has to check off what the money will be used for. Reasons include paying qualified community members to proctor, obtaining resources for AP courses, and a stipend for the AP Coordinator as minor compensation for all the extra hours required to pull off a successful year with thousands of exams received, tracked, taken, and returned with no security breaches.

It might have been an extra $300 or $400 dollop into the paycheck. However, if you think I ever saw that, excuse me while I struggle to control my bladder as uncontrollable laughter shakes my body.

To get back on topic, after answering a few background questions like years of teaching and last role in the school, the survey settled into presenting three statements, of which one would be most compelling and one would be least compelling.

It became clear that the College Board wasn’t asking questions about what would be most important in a grade 6 to 12 curriculum, but what blurbs would best be used in a marketing campaign for attention.

Maybe I should have screenshotted every view, but we are all weary with this <ahem.> Suffice it to say that every blurb that drew attention to preformatted, provided assessments got a least compelling. Every blurb that emphasized teacher autonomy and discretion in designing instruction got a most compelling.

I would advise College Board to explore a merger with Pearson, a/k/a Savvas Learning, if they really want to get into the curriculum biz. For their part, Pearson would love to get their mitts on the AP juggernaut. Win-win? Pbbt, it’s a lose-lose proposition.