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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The point is to distinguish the kids in their own schools. A kid with a 98 GPA is much better than one with a 90. Right now in MCPS, they are both A students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The point is to distinguish the kids in their own schools. A kid with a 98 GPA is much better than one with a 90. Right now in MCPS, they are both A students.

It's not MCPS's job to make the job of the college admissions officers easier. Plus the college admissions officers seem to have figured out ways anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The point is to distinguish the kids in their own schools. A kid with a 98 GPA is much better than one with a 90. Right now in MCPS, they are both A students.

The grades are only really comparable if they have taken the exact same classes with the same teachers anyways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

There is no charge and no "curriculum". There is a list of content and themes that will be tested. So money is not the reason these are being dropped by the top private schools. It has to do with their market audience of colleges and creating mystique for parents who will think that the homegrown classes are vastly superior from those offered in public schools. This is how they differentiate and justify high tuition. I know, my D.C. goes to a Big 3, while I teach APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

There is no charge and no "curriculum". There is a list of content and themes that will be tested. So money is not the reason these are being dropped by the top private schools. It has to do with their market audience of colleges and creating mystique for parents who will think that the homegrown classes are vastly superior from those offered in public schools. This is how they differentiate and justify high tuition. I know, my D.C. goes to a Big 3, while I teach APs.

You have to teach to the test. I would much rather have my kids in a class where the teacher dictates the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

There is no charge and no "curriculum". There is a list of content and themes that will be tested. So money is not the reason these are being dropped by the top private schools. It has to do with their market audience of colleges and creating mystique for parents who will think that the homegrown classes are vastly superior from those offered in public schools. This is how they differentiate and justify high tuition. I know, my D.C. goes to a Big 3, while I teach APs.

You have to teach to the test. I would much rather have my kids in a class where the teacher dictates the curriculum.

Many people trust the college board more than an individual teacher. If you end up with that really bad bio teacher you are just out of luck.

[Anonymous]

Dual enrollment is much better. It cost less and if you pass the course, you earn college credit.

College Board is a money-maker that now rules public ed.

no thanks

[Anonymous]

Are MCPS students getting better college outcomes compared to privates with plus/minus in their grades or magnets where not everyone gets straight As?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dual enrollment is much better. It cost less and if you pass the course, you earn college credit.

College Board is a money-maker that now rules public ed.

no thanks

Will schools let you enroll in the montgomery college course if the same course is offered in the school? For instance, could you take world history at montgomery college instead of AP world history at your HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

There is no charge and no "curriculum". There is a list of content and themes that will be tested. So money is not the reason these are being dropped by the top private schools. It has to do with their market audience of colleges and creating mystique for parents who will think that the homegrown classes are vastly superior from those offered in public schools. This is how they differentiate and justify high tuition. I know, my D.C. goes to a Big 3, while I teach APs.

Wait, MCPS doesn’t train their AP teachers to teach these classes? They just assume these teachers with a bachelors from Towson can teach like a professor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The point is to distinguish the kids in their own schools. A kid with a 98 GPA is much better than one with a 90. Right now in MCPS, they are both A students.

It's not MCPS's job to make the job of the college admissions officers easier. Plus the college admissions officers seem to have figured out ways anyway.

The PP didn’t say just just MCPS, she said everyone.

But yes, I think MCPS should stop grade inflating and start scoring to differentiate the students more, yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

There is no charge and no "curriculum". There is a list of content and themes that will be tested. So money is not the reason these are being dropped by the top private schools. It has to do with their market audience of colleges and creating mystique for parents who will think that the homegrown classes are vastly superior from those offered in public schools. This is how they differentiate and justify high tuition. I know, my D.C. goes to a Big 3, while I teach APs.

You have to teach to the test. I would much rather have my kids in a class where the teacher dictates the curriculum.

Depends on the teacher, eh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dual enrollment is much better. It cost less and if you pass the course, you earn college credit.

College Board is a money-maker that now rules public ed.

no thanks

Still not accepted at all colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dual enrollment is much better. It cost less and if you pass the course, you earn college credit.

College Board is a money-maker that now rules public ed.

no thanks

Just visited a top tier college that will not accept any college credit earned before enrollment. They will take AP/IB classes however.

[Anonymous]

These days honors and APs are the regular classes.