What’s with all of the honors and AP courses? Why don’t they make regular courses more challenging?

[Anonymous]

So everyone is above average. “Regular” nowadays is the bottomline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because private schools get to choose who they accept! And public doesn't. So they need to cater to all levels. Ap is already a defined courses and curriculum so each school/teacher doesn't have to figure it out.

Awesome! Leave it to others to do your work for you! And if these AP courses aren’t quite college courses , why do so many colleges give credit for them?

fewer colleges give credit for them now than they used to

Absolutely this is the trend. Many colleges no longer recognize them as college level classes. I definitely think that kids who are capable and want to be challenged should take these classes. However, the tests themselves are a huge cash cow for the College Board. It will be interesting to see what happens when more schools decide to stop giving credit for AP classes.

[Anonymous]

How much does it cost to do take AP tests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems that they have passed the buck by offering all of these AP courses. The private schools are getting rid of these classes. I wonder how MCPS will react to this.

I predict it will backfire for private schools. They will insist their graduates are much more skilled than public school grads but will have no evidence to back it up.

Private school kid still sit for the May AP tests if it will serve them well for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because private schools get to choose who they accept! And public doesn't. So they need to cater to all levels. Ap is already a defined courses and curriculum so each school/teacher doesn't have to figure it out.

Awesome! Leave it to others to do your work for you! And if these AP courses aren’t quite college courses , why do so many colleges give credit for them?

fewer colleges give credit for them now than they used to

Absolutely this is the trend. Many colleges no longer recognize them as college level classes. I definitely think that kids who are capable and want to be challenged should take these classes. However, the tests themselves are a huge cash cow for the College Board. It will be interesting to see what happens when more schools decide to stop giving credit for AP classes.

Problem is there is no way for a smart student to differentiate him/herself due to rounded whole grades. So getting a 4 or 5 on the actual AP test helps you differentiate and prove yourself, since MCPS grading does not. Travel sports, internships, deep hobbies help as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much does it cost to do take AP tests?

$94+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because the non honors is basically remedial level but no one wants to call it remedial because that is offensive to some in this politically correct country. Facts are no longer acceptable. So instead of saying remedial history and regular history, we say history and honors history.

But don’t Honors classes get weighted higher in gpa?

That would be correct. Personally, I don't agree with it at all, because in almost any instance, the AP course. will be significantly harder, but you won't see a difference in the GPA. For example, I have twins that are freshmen. He is in 2 AP's and taking math one year ahead, whereas she isn't taking any AP's and is taking on level math, and both are getting straight A's. Yet, the one taking AP's puts in much more time, but when you compare their GPA's his is only slightly higher than hers is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because private schools get to choose who they accept! And public doesn't. So they need to cater to all levels. Ap is already a defined courses and curriculum so each school/teacher doesn't have to figure it out.

Awesome! Leave it to others to do your work for you! And if these AP courses aren’t quite college courses , why do so many colleges give credit for them?

fewer colleges give credit for them now than they used to

y

But the majority still do. They risk losing many top students who want their credits. Just visited Princeton who will take APs but no actual college credits which seems really odd. Summer classes taken at actual colleges are worthless there.

[Anonymous]

The privates will still have kids take the AP exams, they just aren't paying for/using the College Board's AP curriculum. They think they can do it better AND save money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So it seems like a lot of students (even freshman) take a huge number of honors and AP courses in MCPS. Why? I understand they get a grade boost but if so many of these students are ready for college level work years before college, maybe the district needs to adjust their own courses. I am a teacher and a parent and my son will be in high school next year. People are asking me what AP courses he will be taking. If he is ready for college level classes as a freshman, something is wrong with the coursework in high school.

It is to make MCPS look like a very intelligent school district. They offer these to basically everyone, give an entire point higher for even honors courses and have some type of rubric that a 79.5 and an 89.5 actually equals an A in the course. If it is honors, you get a 5.0 GPA. F'ing ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't get hung up with the labels. APs are the most challenging and most rigorous. They are usually not quite college level, but are close to a freshman-level college intro class. They vary from somewhat to very challenging. Honors is what used to be called 'on grade level'. You can be annoyed by the inflation of labels, but except in the cases of a few classes, this is what college-bound students ought to take. Many 'regular' classes are essentially remedial, though in some advanced subjects (pre-calculus comes to mind) the course is a good option for many college bound (not math oriented kids).

We aren't pushing the kids too hard-- society has just relabeled these three categories.

In MCPS, kids used to be tracked into 3 different levels of classes with a few APs thrown in for the very best students. Kids were in either class level 3, 2 or 1. I would say that level 3 was for kids who now typically take on grade level classes. Most kids were in level 2. The very best students, labeled “gifted” were placed in level 1. Only some “gifted” students were permitted into the AP class because there was only one AP class. Space was limited. My school had AP English. Grades at that time were not weighted. We currently have a problem in MCPS because there is nothing between Honors and on grade level. Some students who can’t handle the rigor of Honors classes are stuck in on grade level classes that provide them with no challenge and are too easy. So I wouldn’t say that the classes have been relabeled. An entire track of classes has been eliminated, and there is a true need for that track. At my kids’ school, it is the exception to take on grade level. Most take at least Honors level classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it seems like a lot of students (even freshman) take a huge number of honors and AP courses in MCPS. Why? I understand they get a grade boost but if so many of these students are ready for college level work years before college, maybe the district needs to adjust their own courses. I am a teacher and a parent and my son will be in high school next year. People are asking me what AP courses he will be taking. If he is ready for college level classes as a freshman, something is wrong with the coursework in high school.

It is to make MCPS look like a very intelligent school district. They offer these to basically everyone, give an entire point higher for even honors courses and have some type of rubric that a 79.5 and an 89.5 actually equals an A in the course. If it is honors, you get a 5.0 GPA. F'ing ridiculous.

You must also consider that MCPS doesn’t give pluses or minuses. The 79.5 issue is really not the problem. The problem is no trend based grading and the elimination of final exams. It is much easier to get all As than it used to be. Grades should be numbers and not letters. A 95 should be exactly that and not an A. I am guessing that one of the reasons that MCPS made it easier to do well was to compete with other school districts around the nation that grade inflate. My senior in college, who graduated before the elimination of trend based grading, has said many of her college friends had all As in high school and could barely pass their classes in college. She has done better in college than she did in high school, which was pretty darn good but not all As.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it seems like a lot of students (even freshman) take a huge number of honors and AP courses in MCPS. Why? I understand they get a grade boost but if so many of these students are ready for college level work years before college, maybe the district needs to adjust their own courses. I am a teacher and a parent and my son will be in high school next year. People are asking me what AP courses he will be taking. If he is ready for college level classes as a freshman, something is wrong with the coursework in high school.

It is to make MCPS look like a very intelligent school district. They offer these to basically everyone, give an entire point higher for even honors courses and have some type of rubric that a 79.5 and an 89.5 actually equals an A in the course. If it is honors, you get a 5.0 GPA. F'ing ridiculous.

You must also consider that MCPS doesn’t give pluses or minuses. The 79.5 issue is really not the problem. The problem is no trend based grading and the elimination of final exams. It is much easier to get all As than it used to be. Grades should be numbers and not letters. A 95 should be exactly that and not an A. I am guessing that one of the reasons that MCPS made it easier to do well was to compete with other school districts around the nation that grade inflate. My senior in college, who graduated before the elimination of trend based grading, has said many of her college friends had all As in high school and could barely pass their classes in college. She has done better in college than she did in high school, which was pretty darn good but not all As.

I believe all grades should be numbered. The "GPA" should be a number on a 100 scale. Across the entire country. You get 5 points extra for a honors course and 10 points extra for an AP course. That's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it seems like a lot of students (even freshman) take a huge number of honors and AP courses in MCPS. Why? I understand they get a grade boost but if so many of these students are ready for college level work years before college, maybe the district needs to adjust their own courses. I am a teacher and a parent and my son will be in high school next year. People are asking me what AP courses he will be taking. If he is ready for college level classes as a freshman, something is wrong with the coursework in high school.

It is to make MCPS look like a very intelligent school district. They offer these to basically everyone, give an entire point higher for even honors courses and have some type of rubric that a 79.5 and an 89.5 actually equals an A in the course. If it is honors, you get a 5.0 GPA. F'ing ridiculous.

You must also consider that MCPS doesn’t give pluses or minuses. The 79.5 issue is really not the problem. The problem is no trend based grading and the elimination of final exams. It is much easier to get all As than it used to be. Grades should be numbers and not letters. A 95 should be exactly that and not an A. I am guessing that one of the reasons that MCPS made it easier to do well was to compete with other school districts around the nation that grade inflate. My senior in college, who graduated before the elimination of trend based grading, has said many of her college friends had all As in high school and could barely pass their classes in college. She has done better in college than she did in high school, which was pretty darn good but not all As.

I believe all grades should be numbered. The "GPA" should be a number on a 100 scale. Across the entire country. You get 5 points extra for a honors course and 10 points extra for an AP course. That's it.

Schools can still decide how hard to make the test making the grades useless. You can give a test where the average is 75 and I can give a test in the same class one town over where the average grade in 95. Doesn't mean my kids know more. I just gave an easier test. All schools give out a profile which shows the grade frequency. MCPS does not look intelligent. They look like a district with inflated grades. Does that mean a college cannot distinguish between a kid that took Honors Health and Chorus for a 5 point A vs AP Physics C? I don't think so.

[Anonymous]

Colleges that don’t take AP exams are often not taking them as a big money grab. Colleges don’t want kids graduating a year or half a year early, they want the tuition money. At 60k plus a year for some of these schools, let’s not kid yourself, higher education is a BUSINESS! It’s all about the money.