With a Grade of 'D' or higher... but you need 'A' or 'B' to get to AP

This is a continuation of the earlier post on looking at high schools and beyond in order to understand leveling in language education in America.

I saw that a high school had posted that in order to advance from level One to Two, and then from Two to Three, then a prerequisite was stated.

I would like to ask - is the idea of a "prerequisite" a new idea in American education? Sometimes, when people are talking about Mandarin Immersion programs, it does, in fact, sound like they have never heard of prerequisites or that their children will never have to face such a thing.

Like I've said, from the reasonable to the bizarre.

The bar for going from one level to the next is low, indeed. But then what happens? This same high school then states that in order to enter their AP Chinese class, the prerequisite was to have passed Level 3 with a grade of 'A' or 'B', or to take a test. Why not keep the bar low? Maybe kids and their parents need to see what failure through a Nationally applied standard like the AP looks like before they might reflect more honestly about the utility of their kid passing with a 'D' in prior years in order to advance.

I would hope that the student is getting some more enlightened guidance at the school in order to guide this student toward something more worthwhile to do than passing their language courses with no more than a 'D.' Maybe try Spanish instead of Mandarin? Why not? Maybe that kid would then get a 'C' instead.

I think this illustrates the larger point. What's the bridge? What's the path to getting there? At that point, who is getting eliminated from the running and who is able to go forward?

Educators and parents need to take an honest look at how kids get a finishing grade of 'A' or 'B' for Level 3 Mandarin. What does it require? And of course, not the entitlement backlash, but what do kids actually need to be able to do at that level.

Are these kids getting prepared in the earlier years to do this? If not, then what needs to happen?

Like I've said, lowering the standards doesn't help anyone. Eventually, these kids will have to meet up with the outside world. Being so entirely unprepared to do so with any moderate chances of success is cruel, it is irresponsible of the grown ups. This is just tantamount to setting them up for failure. You can't blame the kids. You have to blame all the grown ups - all the previous teachers, administrators and parents who hid the truth from their children.