How is the elimination of APs going for your DC

[Anonymous]

With so much arrogance on display in this thread, it’s tempting to dismiss it as a bunch of trolls. But it’s too close to what certain private parents are like. Lovely people.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselor here- why are some privates doing away with APs? I don’t understand.
Other than the fact that college board is making a killing with all of the test administrations.

Private schools need to be able to say they are offering something more or more rigorous than high achieving publics. Privates want to tout the freedom to create deeper curricula when it freed from the AP label, and while that may be true, the need to distinguish is what drives those decisions. Why pay $30k+ to take the same classes and matriculate to the same colleges as a public school student. As noted by a PP, APs are still coin of the realm in college admissions. Having a full suite of those course offerings was not hurting private school kids’ options any more than those courses being described as honors would now.

This is partly true, however a really top notch private school with small classes of highly motivated students and teachers with advanced degrees in the subject area can certainly offer classes that more closely resemble the courses taught at the college level. Particularly in the humanities, AP courses do not give students a true seminar, college-level experience. Independent schools can instead offer Advanced courses that are described to colleges on their school profiles.

You can also do that with a course approved as AP. So that's not the answer to why some schools dropped it.

Perhaps the company that runs AP is trash and has no business controlling high school education?

I too think college board is awful. But that’s not why privates are dropping them. I would take several tests at least anyway if it were my kid. If your kid can’t score 4 in a few APs like US or world history after a 100k investment you really didn’t get your moneys worth unless some learning disabilities involved.

Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.

That's silly.

Actually quite accurate. My kid and their friends have only received 5s if they took an overlapping course. One 4 occurred after just 2 days of studying and no class.

That’s lovely for your children and their friends. But the comment was not about your children and their friends. The comment was that “Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.” That claim is inconsistent with the Phillips Exeter school profile, https://exeter.edu/app/uploads/2024/10/2024-25_PEA_College_Profile.pdf, which states that a quarter of students who attempt APs have an average score of 3 or less. (I trust we can all agree that Phillips Exeter is “at least semi-decent.”)

Why look at broad data directly from the source when you can make a poor generalization based on a handful of examples though?

I'm going to strongly agree that it would be surprising for students at a decent private school to get less than a 5 on APs if they took the course.

Ah, but the point is that the private schools don’t teach AP courses. So the kids who take the exams and do well get all the credit, while the kids who take the exams and do poorly have a ready-made excuse.

It would be like taking an AP Econ exam without taking an Economics class.

Kids at decent private schools get 5s when the coursework is there.

One example is my kid took the AP physics exam without a corresponding physics course and scored a 5. Usually kids can score at least a 3 without taking a related class.

This is pretty strong evidence that AP is a worthless program.

This is one anonymous comment on the internet. It’s not evidence of anything.

Your local public school is the crime scene if you want more evidence.

Lol another comment that makes no sense.

Some of you need to be attending school in place of your kids.

The worthlessness of the AP program is on display at public high schools across the country. It appeals to low achieving and low effort people.

AP is still the standard at 90% of all private schools as well. It’s a small group that eliminated.

They are mostly all going to eliminate AP classes and variably offer the tests for the holdouts.

Nope. This was definitely a big discussion several years ago when 8 schools decided to do so. But many schools deliberately decided not to follow suit. It was a question we asked when looking at high schools. DC’s current school offers 30 APs and they have no plans to change that.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselor here- why are some privates doing away with APs? I don’t understand.
Other than the fact that college board is making a killing with all of the test administrations.

Private schools need to be able to say they are offering something more or more rigorous than high achieving publics. Privates want to tout the freedom to create deeper curricula when it freed from the AP label, and while that may be true, the need to distinguish is what drives those decisions. Why pay $30k+ to take the same classes and matriculate to the same colleges as a public school student. As noted by a PP, APs are still coin of the realm in college admissions. Having a full suite of those course offerings was not hurting private school kids’ options any more than those courses being described as honors would now.

This is partly true, however a really top notch private school with small classes of highly motivated students and teachers with advanced degrees in the subject area can certainly offer classes that more closely resemble the courses taught at the college level. Particularly in the humanities, AP courses do not give students a true seminar, college-level experience. Independent schools can instead offer Advanced courses that are described to colleges on their school profiles.

You can also do that with a course approved as AP. So that's not the answer to why some schools dropped it.

Perhaps the company that runs AP is trash and has no business controlling high school education?

I too think college board is awful. But that’s not why privates are dropping them. I would take several tests at least anyway if it were my kid. If your kid can’t score 4 in a few APs like US or world history after a 100k investment you really didn’t get your moneys worth unless some learning disabilities involved.

Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.

That's silly.

Actually quite accurate. My kid and their friends have only received 5s if they took an overlapping course. One 4 occurred after just 2 days of studying and no class.

That’s lovely for your children and their friends. But the comment was not about your children and their friends. The comment was that “Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.” That claim is inconsistent with the Phillips Exeter school profile, https://exeter.edu/app/uploads/2024/10/2024-25_PEA_College_Profile.pdf, which states that a quarter of students who attempt APs have an average score of 3 or less. (I trust we can all agree that Phillips Exeter is “at least semi-decent.”)

Why look at broad data directly from the source when you can make a poor generalization based on a handful of examples though?

I'm going to strongly agree that it would be surprising for students at a decent private school to get less than a 5 on APs if they took the course.

Ah, but the point is that the private schools don’t teach AP courses. So the kids who take the exams and do well get all the credit, while the kids who take the exams and do poorly have a ready-made excuse.

It would be like taking an AP Econ exam without taking an Economics class.

Kids at decent private schools get 5s when the coursework is there.

One example is my kid took the AP physics exam without a corresponding physics course and scored a 5. Usually kids can score at least a 3 without taking a related class.

This is pretty strong evidence that AP is a worthless program.

This is one anonymous comment on the internet. It’s not evidence of anything.

Your local public school is the crime scene if you want more evidence.

Lol another comment that makes no sense.

Some of you need to be attending school in place of your kids.

The worthlessness of the AP program is on display at public high schools across the country. It appeals to low achieving and low effort people.

AP is still the standard at 90% of all private schools as well. It’s a small group that eliminated.

They are mostly all going to eliminate AP classes and variably offer the tests for the holdouts.

No they won’t. Again, private schools aren’t some strange monolith and there is zero effort to remove AP from parochial schools as an example which are a large %age of private schools.

We usually consider those public school equivalents.

Even NCS and STA retained some actual AP classes. Those elite enough private for you?

[Anonymous]

This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

A lot of private colleges are just happy to lock in full-pay families in the early decision round. Add recruited athletes, and the children of donors and celebrities, and that’s pretty much the whole student body at the kind of school that dropped APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

Just so you are better educated. Private schools tend to have more wealth diversity than a lot of public. In Potomac or Fairfax or Bethesda most families are upper middle class. Guessing you do not live in an education forest so keep
this in mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

Can you name one high performing public school that isn't a wealth bubble? Ignore the magnets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

Can you name one high performing public school that isn't a wealth bubble? Ignore the magnets.

McLean High
Marshall

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

Can you name one high performing public school that isn't a wealth bubble? Ignore the magnets.

Why ignore the magnets?

[Anonymous]

I haven't read this thread but I have a child heading off to a public university this fall (Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Berkeley) from a school that eliminated most APs (GDS, Sidwell, NCS, STA) and we're exceedingly grateful that this kid took a bunch of AP exams.
Without the AP exams you're stuck taking the entry level classes. Being in the higher level courses is already freeing them up to take more interesting classes and possibly double major--or at least have freshman year to figure out 2 majors because they're not having to take as many gen-eds.

When my kid was in high school I was of the mindset of "screw the college board, who really cares about APs" but now i'm realizing how helpful it is that they took the exams.

Just an FYI for those with younger kids. Attend the private high school but take the AP exams if at all possible (especially if your kid may end up attending a public university.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

Just so you are better educated. Private schools tend to have more wealth diversity than a lot of public. In Potomac or Fairfax or Bethesda most families are upper middle class. Guessing you do not live in an education forest so keep
this in mind.

Oh my, no. Esp the ones so many here are talking about: those that dropped APs. Pls don’t tell me JR is less socioeconomically diverse than SFS, NCS/STA, GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

Can you name one high performing public school that isn't a wealth bubble? Ignore the magnets.

Why ignore the magnets?

Magnet schools can be high performing just through admission criteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

Can you name one high performing public school that isn't a wealth bubble? Ignore the magnets.

McLean High
Marshall

Is that a joke?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

Can you name one high performing public school that isn't a wealth bubble? Ignore the magnets.

Why ignore the magnets?

Magnet schools can be high performing just through admission criteria.

The immediate question is about wealth, not level of performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating. You save a fortune by going off to college with a bunch of APs and coming from public school my child was offered quite a few scholarships which also save us a lot of money. I cannot imagine paying private school tuition not to have the level of rigor guaranteed that is needed to pass an AP exam. I also cannot imagine colleges won't look down on this unless these are families that could potentially be massive donors. Who came up with this idea?

I myself went to private school and we had plenty of APs. I didn't send my own kids because I don't want them in a wealthy bubble.

Can you name one high performing public school that isn't a wealth bubble? Ignore the magnets.

Why ignore the magnets?

Magnet schools can be high performing just through admission criteria.

The immediate question is about wealth, not level of performance.

Any idea why you can’t connect the dots?