Whatever happened to: "APs are a scam"

[Anonymous]

Or "AP classes are one of America's 'greatest frauds' "? From 2012. An Aug 2012 Atlantic piece and on npr from Dec 2012.

What has MCPS' done if APs really are a scam? Add IB courses? Create magnets? But don't magnets also use IB or AP courses? Create an in-house curriculum that doesn't use AP or IB?

[Anonymous]

In the absence of a functional Department of Education requiring a national exam at the end of high school, like France and Germany and the UK do, or national college entrance exams, like China and Korea and Japan do...

... we're stuck with private companies selling their own exams.

The AP exams, the SAT and the ACT are all legitimate, extensively-researched, and rigorous tests of knowledge. They're not scams. Colleges need to compare students to each other to evaluate their academic readiness, and GPAs can't serve that purpose since they're not calculated in the same way, using the same instructional quality or metrics, in different school systems.

It's too bad someone, the school or the end consumer, needs to pay for these private exams. But take it up with the government, and the voters.

[Anonymous]

College Board making $$$$$

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the absence of a functional Department of Education requiring a national exam at the end of high school, like France and Germany and the UK do, or national college entrance exams, like China and Korea and Japan do...

... we're stuck with private companies selling their own exams.

The AP exams, the SAT and the ACT are all legitimate, extensively-researched, and rigorous tests of knowledge. They're not scams. Colleges need to compare students to each other to evaluate their academic readiness, and GPAs can't serve that purpose since they're not calculated in the same way, using the same instructional quality or metrics, in different school systems.

It's too bad someone, the school or the end consumer, needs to pay for these private exams. But take it up with the government, and the voters.

MD has MCAP which are end of school year tests administered in grades 3-8th. Also MCAP Algebra, MCAP Biology, Government test, MCAP English/some sort of English exam after 10th grade English.

[Anonymous]

My only gripe with AP classes is the fact that the entire year of work really doesn’t matter if you do poorly on the test. There are a multitude of reasons why a kid might do poorly on the test, many of which are out of their control.

I prefer my daughter taking dual enrollment classes when she reaches 11th grade and can drive to MC. I know this sounds bad, but For now as a sophomore, she takes AP mainly to filter her classmates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My only gripe with AP classes is the fact that the entire year of work really doesn’t matter if you do poorly on the test. There are a multitude of reasons why a kid might do poorly on the test, many of which are out of their control.

I prefer my daughter taking dual enrollment classes when she reaches 11th grade and can drive to MC. I know this sounds bad, but For now as a sophomore, she takes AP mainly to filter her classmates.

This is us too. DD takes honors/AP to stay in a stream with the like-minded kids (not the "rough" ones). She's only picking ones where she truly likes the content. Many on here who have been through it say that the grade matters more than the content any way.

She is focused on her grades and a happy high school experience. We are absolutely not counting on an AP of 4 or 5 or a DE credit ato replace college credits when she gets to college. She'll still have to traverse the college system from the Freshman path up (and we fully expect to pay for it all!) just as intended.

[Anonymous]

^^oops = the grade all year matters more than the test score!

[Anonymous]

It's all we've got - AP and IB. These classes are what honors classes used to be. You can certainly choose not not enroll your kids in them, but then competitive colleges will see your child is not taking the most challenging courses

[Anonymous]

AP courses have standard textbooks, and a year-end final test. This is already much better than honors-for-all courses in most of MCPS HS curriculum except magnets/IB/humanity. The latter contain wider or deeper contents, more challenging, and kids build strong foundations through those courses with like-mind peers. No textbook associated with these courses and they are really designed by the magnet/IB/humanity teachers to fit the need and level of a special student body.

While I truly wish part of the latter can be expanded to give local HS students more opportunities to challenge themselves, MCPS would mess it up 100% for sure, just like what they did for HIGH in MS, and all those honor-for-all courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AP courses have standard textbooks, and a year-end final test. This is already much better than honors-for-all courses in most of MCPS HS curriculum except magnets/IB/humanity. The latter contain wider or deeper contents, more challenging, and kids build strong foundations through those courses with like-mind peers. No textbook associated with these courses and they are really designed by the magnet/IB/humanity teachers to fit the need and level of a special student body.

While I truly wish part of the latter can be expanded to give local HS students more opportunities to challenge themselves, MCPS would mess it up 100% for sure, just like what they did for HIGH in MS, and all those honor-for-all courses.

Well, I shouldn't include IB there. IB has standard textbooks and standard final tests. But depending on the student body, the results (e.g., IBDP rate) are drastically different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My only gripe with AP classes is the fact that the entire year of work really doesn’t matter if you do poorly on the test. There are a multitude of reasons why a kid might do poorly on the test, many of which are out of their control.

I prefer my daughter taking dual enrollment classes when she reaches 11th grade and can drive to MC. I know this sounds bad, but For now as a sophomore, she takes AP mainly to filter her classmates.

As do many

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the absence of a functional Department of Education requiring a national exam at the end of high school, like France and Germany and the UK do, or national college entrance exams, like China and Korea and Japan do...

... we're stuck with private companies selling their own exams.

The AP exams, the SAT and the ACT are all legitimate, extensively-researched, and rigorous tests of knowledge. They're not scams. Colleges need to compare students to each other to evaluate their academic readiness, and GPAs can't serve that purpose since they're not calculated in the same way, using the same instructional quality or metrics, in different school systems.

It's too bad someone, the school or the end consumer, needs to pay for these private exams. But take it up with the government, and the voters.

MD has MCAP which are end of school year tests administered in grades 3-8th. Also MCAP Algebra, MCAP Biology, Government test, MCAP English/some sort of English exam after 10th grade English.

The MCAP, the results of which are so important that MCPS doesn't use them in any of their decision-making at all about which kids attend CES, and middle school and high school magnets and prefers to use MAP testing?

[Anonymous]

APs are essentially the only rigorous, challenging course at our school (with the exception of a couple of pre-AP math courses). They also have a fairly standardized curriculum with support materials.

I don't know if you're intending to say that AP **tests** are a scam. On that, I don't have a particular opinion. But if MCPS didn't have AP classes, I'd almost certainly pay for my kids to go to private HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the absence of a functional Department of Education requiring a national exam at the end of high school, like France and Germany and the UK do, or national college entrance exams, like China and Korea and Japan do...

... we're stuck with private companies selling their own exams.

The AP exams, the SAT and the ACT are all legitimate, extensively-researched, and rigorous tests of knowledge. They're not scams. Colleges need to compare students to each other to evaluate their academic readiness, and GPAs can't serve that purpose since they're not calculated in the same way, using the same instructional quality or metrics, in different school systems.

It's too bad someone, the school or the end consumer, needs to pay for these private exams. But take it up with the government, and the voters.

MD has MCAP which are end of school year tests administered in grades 3-8th. Also MCAP Algebra, MCAP Biology, Government test, MCAP English/some sort of English exam after 10th grade English.

What part of NATIONAL do you not understand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or "AP classes are one of America's 'greatest frauds' "? From 2012. An Aug 2012 Atlantic piece and on npr from Dec 2012.

What has MCPS' done if APs really are a scam? Add IB courses? Create magnets? But don't magnets also use IB or AP courses? Create an in-house curriculum that doesn't use AP or IB?

Link your sources and bring an argument. MCPS has tried its hand at Curriculum (2.0). It was a disaster.