Recently AICE courses have been the ongoing courses taking over many high schools with students currently being placed in these classes. Here at Santaluces Community High School, we are one of the schools that offer these newly booming courses. AICE, which stands for “The Advanced International Certificate of Education,” is an internationally recognized course that awards students who take these courses, pass both semesters and pass the exams associated with it to get a diploma called the AICE diploma.
The AICE diploma gives students college credits and scholarship money, which is great for some students and families who cannot afford to pay college tuition. However, this money is not handed down easily. Some of these AICE classes just give work on top of work and you have to be able to manage your time and assignments very wisely if you want to pass the class and the exams.
In some cases, AICE classes are very helpful for students if they apply themselves to the class. However, if a student does not apply themselves fully then it likely will be detrimental to the student. AICE courses are for students who can handle these classes. Although, from time to time, you will see administrators put students, who they feel have a chance at passing the AICE course and/or feel like they need a push at their education.
Our school tries to give each student a chance to be in one of these college-level courses so that they can have higher opportunities in the later years to come but sometimes you just can’t help those who don’t want the help.
The AICE exam is a test that determines if you’re getting the AICE diploma or not; these tests are about certain subjects you have been taught all year within your classes such as English, science, history, and some additional electives. These tests can be a little confusing because unfortunately, the teachers don’t exactly know what is going to be on the test. So they don’t know exactly what to teach, which is a huge issue when it comes to trying to pass the tests.
The teachers do typically have a clear understanding of what will be on these AICE exams, but for classes like AICE International History, “The University of Cambridge” may switch up the questions so that copying and/or cheating is not done.
The thing about AICE exams is that on top of you already playing the dice to see if you’re going to pass or not, you have to pay a hundred dollars to retake the exam if you fail it and if it’s a required exam to get the AICE diploma, it’s a must and for some students, it’s worth it. However, some students rather not get the diploma.
During an interview “The Tribe” had with Erica Whitefield, she stated that a goal she has for schools is to give everyone a chance at having AICE classes because it seemed like to her minorities, such as black boys, are the people who aren’t put in these high leveled classes, while white people, especially white females, are.
I feel like that is an amazing thing to do because it allows those who felt like they didn’t even have a chance in a class like that.
In an interview I had with one of my peers at Santaluces Community High School, who so happens to be a black male, stated that he actually likes AICE classes because of the challenge it gives him. He said he wouldn’t want to take regular classes because he feels like he would be too smart for everyone else, and also it looks better on a college application.
The student then goes on to explain that classes such as AICE Environmental and AICE Literature give too much work in his opinion and that the work starts to pile up; however, they feel like all the hard work is going to be worth it in the end. And that’s what I’m saying; AICE classes are a great opportunity for everyone.
When a student passes a course, it encourages them and leads them to keep going because now they believe that they can pass the next AICE course they take the next one and, so on. But if a student fails, they are going to be discouraged and give up. On top of being discouraged once you’re in the class, it is really hard to get switched out unless you have some valid reason that is not “I don’t want to be in it” or if your parent gets involved.
According to a PDF I found by the School District of Palm Beach County, teachers can get bonuses for having students pass the AICE exam. The bonuses start at fifty dollars for each student scoring an E or higher if he or she takes the full course; however, if a student is in a half-credit course, the teachers will be eligible to get twenty-five dollars for getting an E or higher.
This being said, teachers are going to try their best to make sure you pass. Some teachers are really good at teaching an AICE subject like Mrs. Harms and Mrs. Schroader. They try to do hands-on activities and try to understand where everyone is coming from. They also try to give some leniency to those students who need it. However, other teachers cannot teach and rely solely on busy work for students to try to obtain the knowledge.
AICE courses are put in to give you college credit, and these classes really aren’t that hard and feel like the normal amount of workload for me personally. Some teachers do just overload work on you and don’t explain the material, but it isn’t overbearing for me. There are so many AICE classes around now that I don’t even know anybody with a regular class which is not a bad thing because according to one of my teachers, she says that many kids placed in these classes actually do pass.
AICE courses in general are just a big opportunity for students that should be featured everywhere but only given to those who want it.
