Questions from Helen Li: 

Many Chinese parents have a big concern for Ken since We heard the rumor that Ken wants to reduce AP Classes and worry that Ken will pull down PA school academic level. We would like Ken to tell us what is his opinion for AP classes. Also why is his kids in private school now? Please let me know. Thanks.

Ken Dauber's answer to my questions:  

Dear Helen:

I am sorry that you heard that rumor, but it is not at all true. I am not opposed to AP classes, and have absolutely no desire to reduce the level of achievement for students in our schools. In fact, I have consistently been a voice for raising achievement for all students, through increasing expectations for all students so that we have consistently high expectations for all students in the district. 

In terms of AP classes, I have never said that we should reduce or eliminate or in any way change AP classes. I have said that I think that we should offer even more interesting, challenging, and advanced classes for our students and that AP classes are not the only kinds of such classes. There are also IB classes, and then there are advanced classes such as the Paly Journalism program which are not AP classes technically but might even be more advanced. We should want our students to have access to a world-class opportunity to learn.

My own children all took AP coursework and I am not against it.

Not every student is going to want to take a lot of challenging classes, however. For those students we should also offer a rich curriculum with plenty of challenges so that every student can succeed to their own fullest potential. I have described it as having a system in which there is no ceiling, and the floor is substantially higher than it currently is. I think every student should graduated prepared to attend a 4 year college. 

As to your question regarding why Elliot attends private school, Elliot is in 8th grade. Based on our own experience with Palo Alto middle schools, (Elliot is the youngest of five) we felt that the middle schools did not offer all the social emotional support for that age group that we wanted.

There are other reasons we felt the switch to a smaller school was good for him.He is very advanced in mathematics. When he was in 6th grade he was able to take Algebra at his private school but not in public school and he was very bored in math and losing interest in the subject, which was very worrisome to us. He is now in 8th grade and has completed Trig and is finishing honors geometry. Next year he will take honors pre-calculus as a 9th grader. 

I feel that the combination of social-emotional supports for students that our school focuses on, together with allowing him to do advanced coursework in math, were good reasons for this particular student to move schools. 

I have had three children in public schools in Palo Alto, two of whom attended high school at Gunn. I am not in general someone who thought that I would send children to private schools -- I moved here for the schools, probably like everyone else. But this was the best fit for this particular child.

I would like to point out I am not the only candidate who has made this decisions. Three of the four school board candidates with children send at least one of them to private school. Myself, Catherine Foster, and Gina Dalma all have a middle school student in private school (Woodside Priory, Nueva, and Girls Middle School, respectively)

Thanks for your question and I look forward to Sunday.

Best,

Ken