Holton-Arms No AP Classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No AP classes is ok if your school has 100% fantastic teachers. But no school — including Holton — has 100% fantastic teachers. The lack of AP removes the guardrail protecting against a bad teacher. With AP in place, a bad teacher still has to follow a scheduled curriculum. Without AP, a bad teacher can proceed completely unchecked by fear of accountability from AP test scores (or the need to get through a scheduled curriculum).

Except this is not how any school handles teaching - no AP does not mean that there is a lack of accountability. Our experience is at Holton where the curriculum is well thought out, and a lack of AP test scores doesn't mean that there aren't metrics in place. Each of the departments has a chair and a committee of teachers that has a long arc of planning and developing the curriculum. Sure, individual teachers have different approaches to how they teach, but as a whole, the curriculum is followed. The real benefit of not administering the AP test is that the curriculum is more dynamic and able to change with the times, and is often more interesting and thought provoking for the students and the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NCS has all but phased them out. Sidwell, GDS and Potomac have gotten rid if them too. I don’t know about Maret? It isn’t a big deal. Top privates all over the country have gotten rid if APs.

NCS still has them for languages, sciences and math. It does not feel like they are being phased out, unless next year they are going away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCS has all but phased them out. Sidwell, GDS and Potomac have gotten rid if them too. I don’t know about Maret? It isn’t a big deal. Top privates all over the country have gotten rid if APs.

NCS still has them for languages, sciences and math. It does not feel like they are being phased out, unless next year they are going away.

+1 those are the most frequently taken tests everywhere as well. They help fulfill lib arts pre reqs at college.

[Anonymous]

The conundrum of no AP classes for us is that while the honors/advanced classes are more up-to-date than APs and provide a rigorous/deep learning experience, they can be tricky if you need help as there is no standard text book or obvious website resources to fall back on. There are so many available resources for standard AP classes (the textbooks have practice test questions, websites have explanatory videos, there are tutors who specialize in AP curriculum, etc.). Teachers help, but part of being in an honors class is figuring out some of the content for yourself which can be very time consuming.

And yes, for those taking APs they need to study beyond what is taught in an honors/advanced class--not harder information, but different. Teachers can outline what is different in their curriculum vs AP though so the extra study can be targeted.

[Anonymous]

Not sure what some of you mean by the AP curriculum not being up to date.
AP curriculum is generally revised every 2-3 years. It stays very close to standard college level first year classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t matter. The kids who would take Ap are not going to schools that would accept AP. So they just evaluate if you took the most rigorous course offered.

Ivies accept 5s on over 10 subjects. Look for yourself. Do tiny slacs make you redo your language or math or science requirement regardless of major or HS transcript?

They accept them for placing out of certain requirements, not as credits (ie, they don’t help you graduate early or save money).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t matter. The kids who would take Ap are not going to schools that would accept AP. So they just evaluate if you took the most rigorous course offered.

Ivies accept 5s on over 10 subjects. Look for yourself. Do tiny slacs make you redo your language or math or science requirement regardless of major or HS transcript?

They accept them for placing out of certain requirements, not as credits (ie, they don’t help you graduate early or save money).

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t matter. The kids who would take Ap are not going to schools that would accept AP. So they just evaluate if you took the most rigorous course offered.

Ivies accept 5s on over 10 subjects. Look for yourself. Do tiny slacs make you redo your language or math or science requirement regardless of major or HS transcript?

They accept them for placing out of certain requirements, not as credits (ie, they don’t help you graduate early or save money).

Sure, but that is not relevant to the majority of students, who will not be attending ivies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STA has kept them.

No AP classes is ok if your school has 100% fantastic teachers. But no school — including Holton — has 100% fantastic teachers. The lack of AP removes the guardrail protecting against a bad teacher. With AP in place, a bad teacher still has to follow a scheduled curriculum. Without AP, a bad teacher can proceed completely unchecked by fear of accountability from AP test scores (or the need to get through a scheduled curriculum).

THis. Because while it is known that the big 3 don't have them, it is not known that Holton is dropping them so it is going to take several years for college and universities to catch up. Presumably this now means that a 4.0 is the top GPA at Holton, correct? That is a problem when you are competing against a 4.6 from MCPS or FCPS for a slot in a school. Presumably, the college advisor will be on top of this but it will mean a sea change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STA has kept them.

No AP classes is ok if your school has 100% fantastic teachers. But no school — including Holton — has 100% fantastic teachers. The lack of AP removes the guardrail protecting against a bad teacher. With AP in place, a bad teacher still has to follow a scheduled curriculum. Without AP, a bad teacher can proceed completely unchecked by fear of accountability from AP test scores (or the need to get through a scheduled curriculum).

THis. Because while it is known that the big 3 don't have them, it is not known that Holton is dropping them so it is going to take several years for college and universities to catch up. Presumably this now means that a 4.0 is the top GPA at Holton, correct? That is a problem when you are competing against a 4.6 from MCPS or FCPS for a slot in a school. Presumably, the college advisor will be on top of this but it will mean a sea change.

Holton hasn't had them in years. There are still honors classes for weighted GPAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STA has kept them.

No AP classes is ok if your school has 100% fantastic teachers. But no school — including Holton — has 100% fantastic teachers. The lack of AP removes the guardrail protecting against a bad teacher. With AP in place, a bad teacher still has to follow a scheduled curriculum. Without AP, a bad teacher can proceed completely unchecked by fear of accountability from AP test scores (or the need to get through a scheduled curriculum).

THis. Because while it is known that the big 3 don't have them, it is not known that Holton is dropping them so it is going to take several years for college and universities to catch up. Presumably this now means that a 4.0 is the top GPA at Holton, correct? That is a problem when you are competing against a 4.6 from MCPS or FCPS for a slot in a school. Presumably, the college advisor will be on top of this but it will mean a sea change.

Every college/university recalibrates GPAs to fit their individual admissions structure (and knows how each HS grades, btw, and weather grades are weighted, how much, what Al’s are offered etc). Maybe your child is too young for you to be concerning yourself about those details of college admissions, but that is widely known once you start looking at universities.

[Anonymous]

Many Holton girls do very well on AP tests even without taking formal AP classes there. And, yes, they have to study a little bit for them, but primarily to have confidence walking into the test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many Holton girls do very well on AP tests even without taking formal AP classes there. And, yes, they have to study a little bit for them, but primarily to have confidence walking into the test.

Yep, I never took an AP class in my life, but got 5 on Calc and Bio (granted, bio is no big feat, that was laughable).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many Holton girls do very well on AP tests even without taking formal AP classes there. And, yes, they have to study a little bit for them, but primarily to have confidence walking into the test.

Not AP physics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No AP classes is ok if your school has 100% fantastic teachers. But no school — including Holton — has 100% fantastic teachers. The lack of AP removes the guardrail protecting against a bad teacher. With AP in place, a bad teacher still has to follow a scheduled curriculum. Without AP, a bad teacher can proceed completely unchecked by fear of accountability from AP test scores (or the need to get through a scheduled curriculum).

Except this is not how any school handles teaching - no AP does not mean that there is a lack of accountability. Our experience is at Holton where the curriculum is well thought out, and a lack of AP test scores doesn't mean that there aren't metrics in place. Each of the departments has a chair and a committee of teachers that has a long arc of planning and developing the curriculum. Sure, individual teachers have different approaches to how they teach, but as a whole, the curriculum is followed. The real benefit of not administering the AP test is that the curriculum is more dynamic and able to change with the times, and is often more interesting and thought provoking for the students and the teachers.

The math, science and history college prep courses are “changing with the times.” Yikes.

Is this what the UK, Japanese, Indian and French’s school systems are doing too? Changing core subjects and teaching “with the times.”?