The thought occurred to me, anyway, as I read about a week-long film-making orientation at the AP Academy at Burke High School as reported in Wednesday's P & C. Oh, yes, it was publicity of a sort. However, so many details were omitted regarding the program that you wonder what the reporter had her mind on when she interviewed Juanita Middleton, the program's coordinator. Or did the reporter interview anyone?
Most of the story clearly was based on a press release, not surprisingly, given the P & C's propensity to parrot whatever the District hands it and ask no embarrassing questions. In fact, now that I look again at the short article, I do wonder if the reporter spoke to anyone. See what you think:
Was that an interview or a record of what Middleton said in the film? Of course, reporters use press releases all the time. However, it would be nice if the article had teased us with a few facts--such as why orientation took place in June, whether other activities are planned for the summer, how many students participated in the orientation, etc., especially if CCSD plans to build community support for what promises to be a difficult new venture. The last time we heard from CCSD on the subject of its AP Academy in May it had recruited 27 for the 100 spaces allotted. Did the reporter know that?The Advanced Placement Academy at Burke High School kicked off orientation last week with a filmmaking workshop that ended Friday with the presentation of a film made by students titled "My Charleston."
Filmmaker Portia Cobb, currently a visiting filmmaker at College of Charleston, instructed Burke's rising ninth-graders, members of the new academy.
[snip]
"My objective is to motivate the students to explore image-making and storytelling through brief, individual autobiographical vignettes that will be edited together as a finale for the intensive five-day workshop," she said in a press release [italics mine].
[snip]
Juanita Middleton, coordinator of the AP Academy, also appeared in the film [italics mine] to talk about her belief in God and in her students.
Middleton said she faces skepticism and criticism of the academy which, beginning next school year, will offer rigorous advanced placement and honors courses to prepare participating students for college.
Is she worried about the success of the program?
Middleton responded with confidence:
"I'm not worried about it. I never worry. I just do," she said.
See for yourself: Burke's AP Academy Starts with Filmmaking Workshop.
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4 comments:
It's being brought to us by the same people who gave us the A-Plus program at Burke. And they don't understand why we don't trust them...or the Post and Courier.
I'm looking at the application for the AP Academy right now. It states, "Please attach 2 copies each of work samples in the following core subjects: English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science. These samples must be taken from the 2007-2008 School year."
Now if we have teachers at Burke Middle who have stated their students were accepted into the program without providing a work sample, what would you think? Am I reading it wrong? Or are we, once again, just going through the motions?
How does a school leapfrog from not even offering an SAT prep class this past year to its general population of students to this AP Academy?
At last count 27 students accepted into this program with 100 seats. Now it's revealed that at least 2 of these students haven't submitted the required material at all, not just substandard material. Dr. McGinley should respond to these questions. The county board members should be asking them, too. Well?
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