When Foreign Language Instructional Supervisor (IS) Anne Jensen opened her e-mail account on Wednesday, April 3, she was in for an unexpected surprise. Teachers from all over the country had flooded her inbox with concerns regarding the elimination of several Advanced Placement (AP) courses including French Literature, Latin Literature, Italian Language and Culture and Computer Science AB by College Board, the administrator and creator of all AP tests.

This news was disheartening to Jensen, who has been teaching the AP French Literature course at Gunn since she first started teaching here nine years ago. “French Literature was one of the original AP subjects and has been around for well over 50 years,” she said. The change will take place after the 2008-2009 school year due to funding issues. The subjects scheduled to be cut are less commonly taught in high schools, according to Trevor Packer, Vice President of College Board for AP.

However, Jensen sees a contradictory trend in terms of participation. “Last year over 2000 [students] took the AP French Literature Exam, a 26 percent increase from 1999,” she said. “It is truly unfortunate that opportunities are being taken away from the most gifted and talented American high school students.” The elimination of the AP French Literature course also impacts enrollment into French because students who will finish the AP Language course before their senior year will no longer have another option, according to Jensen.

Some current students are disappointed in the discontinuation of the AP French Literature class. “It’s a special class that’s a unique blend of literature, language, culture and themes,” junior and AP French Literature student Anan Mathre said. “I have gained a great understanding of French culture that you just cannot get through conjugating verbs. My language track with French would have stopped after sophomore year [without AP French Literature],” she said. Junior Julie Ming, who will be a student in the last AP French Literature class next year, thinks it is unfortunate any AP classes are being cut at all. “Instead of eliminating the APs, they should be trying to promote more people to take them,” she said. “Honestly I don’t think there’s enough exposure.”

To protest the Board’s decision, students have written letters to College Board President Gaston Caperton. “I was told to wait for ten days while some high level negotiations were going on with College Board to try to persuade them behind the scenes to rescind their decision,” Jensen said. “When this did not work, I began the letter writing campaign.” Jensen and members of the French club wrote a generic template of a letter for students to sign and send, but students were also encouraged to write their own personal letters expressing concern and sharing experiences from class.

Jensen has also written several letters to College Board expressing her concern. “The World Language Academic Advisory Committee decided to create ‘one single capstone experience in world languages that integrates language, literature and culture’,”she said. “This means that there would be only one test per language and implies that teachers don’t already combine language, literature and culture within their curriculum. Other subjects have more than one test available to students: Calculus AB, BC, Econ Macro & Econ Micro, etc. The more College Board says to justify their decision, the more illogical everything becomes.”

Computer Science is another AP course scheduled to be eliminated by 2010. Don Allen was on the development committee for the AP Computer Science test and helped create the 2008 exam that was offered this year. He also teaches AP Computer Science at Troy High School in Fullerton, California. His dual responsibilities have led to different opinions on the AP cuts. “Unfortunately, the bottom line is what drives the free market and evidently this is where the free market has taken us,” he said.

The College Board also claims that the course is being eliminated because a high percentage of AP teachers are retiring, but Allen’s opinion differs. “As a high school teacher, I have not seen that decrease,” he said. “In fact, over the past three years we have gone from 80 teachers to over 100 teachers. And to be honest, the reason for dropping the AP test is irrelevant as far as I am concerned.”