AP Classes to be Eliminated by 2022

[Anonymous]

That said, lobbying your local public HS to replace AP with IB would be a step in the right direction. As affluent suburban publics have already figured out...

[Anonymous]

IB seems pretty awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Typical of the 1%ers. Because of the proliferation of AP curricula at public secondary schools and the elevated GPAs, public school admission proportions are increasing at elite colleges. Private schools are aiming to muddy the waters, inflate GPAs, and democratize their pool of candidates. Or rather, Oprah-size it....you get an A, you get an A, you get an A....everybody gets an A in some specially crafted, pseudo liberal arts seminar-class where the requirement is "tell us how you feel" about what you might have read......no paper, no essay, no exam.... just experiential learning....~%#

You clearly have no experience with private school education at a competitive private school. It has depth. More so than an AP survey class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The article the the Post quoted an admissions officer at Davidson College saying it definitely won’t count against these kids that they don’t take A.P. classes. And yet it sure as hell would count against my public school kid if he didn’t take A.P. classes. Why shouldn’t it bother me that parents are paying tuition in order to ensure a smoother path in what is supposed to be a fair process?

As private schools, they are not obligated to follow any particular curriculum or grading scheme, and we know that the parents want the kids to get perfect grades and get into great colleges, so what is stopping these schools from calling every class Incredibly Advanced History and giving everyone A’s? They used to have to demonstrate this knowledge on AP exams. Now they won’t.

The schools have every incentive to keep their curriculum difficult. The colleges know these schools and their reputations. If they lower their standards, the colleges will know and it will hurt their reputation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are DC area private schools trying to “move the goal post” in favor of their students given that AP exams are equally available to public school students? AP courses give colleges apple-to-apple comparisons across private and public school students. Sad to see private schools abandon AP courses rather than work with the College Board to improve them

My child's private school in another state eliminated APs years ago. They felt the classes were too focused on the exam and wanted more room for in depth exploration of subjects and critical thinking. It's a trend that has been a long time coming.

I also know from talking to our school's administration that the AP arms race was out of control and they thought it was creating ridiculous and unhealthy pressure for the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The posts of people arguing its a way for privates to distance/distinguish themselves from publics are hilarious and utterly ludicrous. That has absolutely zero to do with the decision. It was the right decisions and made for excellent reasons, reasons that have been outlined fully on the thread.

But keep telling yourselves that if it makes you feel better.

I feel great that my kids attend these private schools and am utterly confident they are each getting the best possible education.

Love how public school parents troll this forum looking for ways to make themselves better about their educational choices. My DS's private still has APs, but they are extremely limited in number compared to public schools. The most a kid could take and max out is about 8 and it is only during junior and senior year. Most take about 5-6. And these kids get admitted to excellent schools. So grateful my kid isn't in that pressure cooker public taking a dozen or more APs for the same outcome.

[Anonymous]

I suspect the private school decision to drop APs is a result of pressure from colleges, not a to lessen the pressure on current students. Colleges lose a lot of tuition money when kids come in with a semester or a year of credits. Either the colleges stop accepting AP tests as credit or the schools stop encouraging their kids from taking the courses or taking the tests.
It just reeks of collusion between institutions that want your money (colleges) and schools that have populations that are both wealthy and willing to give up a potential windfall of cash because the curriculum is (in their opinion that I do not share) “rote.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suspect the private school decision to drop APs is a result of pressure from colleges, not a to lessen the pressure on current students. Colleges lose a lot of tuition money when kids come in with a semester or a year of credits. Either the colleges stop accepting AP tests as credit or the schools stop encouraging their kids from taking the courses or taking the tests.
It just reeks of collusion between institutions that want your money (colleges) and schools that have populations that are both wealthy and willing to give up a potential windfall of cash because the curriculum is (in their opinion that I do not share) “rote.”

Colleges can and have changed their treatment of AP credits. Many schools only use them for placement and not credits.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/04/study-up-scoring-ap-credit-for-college-isnt-easy.html

[Anonymous]

There seems to be a lot of paranoia and defensiveness behind some of these comments. There is no collusion with colleges. This is not an attempt to make classes easier. This is not an effort to be competitive or easier than publics. Nor is the public school approach of lots of AP classes necessarily wrong or worse. It is just different.

This decision is simply an extension of a private school's philosophy/ability to create its own curriculum. They would prefer to have their own faculty design the classes and not have them dictated by the college board. It is not all that different from what is already in place.

[Anonymous]

AP participation has doubled over the past 10 years. I can’t help but think that private schools have decided that this has watered down the AP brand. If so many poor and minority kids are taking the tests now, elite privates don’t want to be associated with them.

[Anonymous]

This flows from colleges down. This is not something DC privates have created to be more elite. In fact the country’s leading privates have already done this (the Andover poster has pointed that out on many occasions). Many colleges do not hold APs in high regard. As others have pointed out, colleges are looking to see that a student is taking the most challenging courses their school offers and frankly those aren’t APs at independent schools. There is not conspiracy, it’s just eliminating what is unnecessary to make room to offer something greater.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This flows from colleges down. This is not something DC privates have created to be more elite. In fact the country’s leading privates have already done this (the Andover poster has pointed that out on many occasions). Many colleges do not hold APs in high regard. As others have pointed out, colleges are looking to see that a student is taking the most challenging courses their school offers and frankly those aren’t APs at independent schools. There is not conspiracy, it’s just eliminating what is unnecessary to make room to offer something greater.

We will never know if what the privates are offering is in fact "greater" because there's no way to compare the students of the privates to the broader population on these subject areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This flows from colleges down. This is not something DC privates have created to be more elite. In fact the country’s leading privates have already done this (the Andover poster has pointed that out on many occasions). Many colleges do not hold APs in high regard. As others have pointed out, colleges are looking to see that a student is taking the most challenging courses their school offers and frankly those aren’t APs at independent schools. There is not conspiracy, it’s just eliminating what is unnecessary to make room to offer something greater.

So if I’m a kid from a small town high school who has been led to believe I should challenge myself by taking as many APs as I can, what am I to think now that apparently colleges don’t hold APs in high regard and private schools are making backroom deals with colleges to ensure it doesn’t matter if their privileged kids take APs or not?

[Anonymous]

No comparison necessary. Just take the most challenging classes your school offers. Colleges are very familiar with most schools they take their students from. They know the difference. They can measure it on success and quality of students they take from those schools. Admissions offices have regional reps who know the schools well. They also often read the applications regionally and even by school, e.g. they read all the St. Albans applications together.

[Anonymous]

If AP classes are the most challenging courses your school offers then yes, by all means take them. Colleges will see that. But many are not cowtowing to the College Board to tell them what to do. It isn’t that colleges disregard the fact they were taken, they just don’t constitute a college class at many schools. They won’t get a student out of a requirement at many places, not all though. It’s changin all of the time. Many big universities still take them as credits as do some small schools. Just do your research when looking at colleges. And many schools are now looking at US geographic diversity so your strong student from a small Midwest town has advantages over others.