AP Classes to be Eliminated by 2022

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The seven top private schools in the area issued a joint statement that they’re all eliminating AP. According to the Post, before “dropping AP, the schools surveyed nearly 150 colleges and universities about the potential impact. They said admission officers assured them the change would not hurt the chances of their students.”

Of course it won’t. Privilege begets privilege.

As a public school parent, this strikes me as privileged parents gaming the system so their children can never be compared directly to public school children. Colleges will just be told to trust them that their classes — and their children — are superior.

Hate to break it to you but the private school kids typically take many fewer AP’s compared to the public school kids. Regular honors classes in private school are rigorous enough.

I went to well regarded private Catholic [b]college in the Midwest, and the students from top private schools could barely graduate. [/b] The only way they did was if they were on an athletic scholarship, due to heavy tutoring. The students from even inner city public schools were very well-prepared, were use to writing 25 page papers, had at least one or two college level math courses completed in high school, and had no problem with handling work, school work, clubs, and Mass. Maybe it's the rigorous curriculum, where students are expected to take pre-algebra in 5th grade and study Shakespear in 3rd grade, that public school students are required to take.

1. There is no such this a well regarded Catholic school from the midwest. Move that school and it would be on the bottom of the list of privates around here
2. The students from top privates could barely graduate? Please. Could you exaggerate anymore. If the top could "barely" graduate doesn't that mean that the middle and bottom all flunked out?
3. Can you please post this amazing public school district, because you realize not one single person believes you?

Obviously, PP is talking about Notre Dame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The seven top private schools in the area issued a joint statement that they’re all eliminating AP. According to the Post, before “dropping AP, the schools surveyed nearly 150 colleges and universities about the potential impact. They said admission officers assured them the change would not hurt the chances of their students.”

Of course it won’t. Privilege begets privilege.

As a public school parent, this strikes me as privileged parents gaming the system so their children can never be compared directly to public school children. Colleges will just be told to trust them that their classes — and their children — are superior.

Hate to break it to you but the private school kids typically take many fewer AP’s compared to the public school kids. Regular honors classes in private school are rigorous enough.

I went to well regarded private Catholic [b]college in the Midwest, and the students from top private schools could barely graduate. [/b] The only way they did was if they were on an athletic scholarship, due to heavy tutoring. The students from even inner city public schools were very well-prepared, were use to writing 25 page papers, had at least one or two college level math courses completed in high school, and had no problem with handling work, school work, clubs, and Mass. Maybe it's the rigorous curriculum, where students are expected to take pre-algebra in 5th grade and study Shakespear in 3rd grade, that public school students are required to take.

1. There is no such this a well regarded Catholic school from the midwest. Move that school and it would be on the bottom of the list of privates around here
2. The students from top privates could barely graduate? Please. Could you exaggerate anymore. If the top could "barely" graduate doesn't that mean that the middle and bottom all flunked out?
3. Can you please post this amazing public school district, because you realize not one single person believes you?

Obviously, PP is talking about Notre Dame.

I would assume that too, except that I actually did go to Notre Dame, and the post is just bizarre and not grounded in any reality.
Fewer than half the students at Notre Dame went to public school, so MOST of the students there are private school students - and no, they obviously aren't all athletes. Alsot ND has a 90%+ graduation rate, so there is no cohort of students there who "barely" graduate.
Pretty sure the PP is just making up crap.

However, the second quoted PP is also making up crap, and should get out of the DC bubble and realize that there are excellent schools all over the country - yes, even some that can compete with the precious big 3.

[Anonymous]

What were the results of this initiative?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why are public school parents so freaked out by the decision by a handful of private schools to walk way from the APs? What scares them so much.

i think they are more bemused by private schools styling themselves as beyond the APs.

I'm not sure they are bemused. It seems to go beyond that based on this thread. They seem pretty worked up to me.

Well, you it would be hard to poll private school parents at the schools dropping APs, but it seems to me, mostly at our school folks are supportive. I have not run into anyone who feels strongly against the change. Lots of people think it was long overdue.

Parent at Big 3. I am against the change. I think it is a private school pretension and a marketing ploy. I am very familiar with AP course requirements and virtually all subjects allow the teacher to design the course in a major way. Creativity and deep learning is allowed; the only thing the teachers may not like is time pressure.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, your experience suggests that my kids, currently at SFS MS, may also feel pressured and choose to take the APs “for their own reasons,” only now with even less help from their teachers. So the AP arms race — and related stress — will continue. Only now, all SFS and DC pvt school kids will need to take expensive supplemental classes on top of their rigorous school schedule. So much for “equity” and “ lower stress”.

THIS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, your experience suggests that my kids, currently at SFS MS, may also feel pressured and choose to take the APs “for their own reasons,” only now with even less help from their teachers. So the AP arms race — and related stress — will continue. Only now, all SFS and DC pvt school kids will need to take expensive supplemental classes on top of their rigorous school schedule. So much for “equity” and “ lower stress”.

THIS!

Many excellent private school in the DMV still offer APs. You have choices.

[Anonymous]

Y’all are on a 5-year-old thread.

[Anonymous]

(Chuckle)

At my (non-boarding) private in a different metro, there never were any courses labeled AP. Curricula for courses were NOT centered on whatever the College Board said, but they absolutely were challenging and rigorous. Each year, the school enabled any student to sit the AP exam for any course s/he took that year. No special AP tutoring or such was used (or even needed). Results were uniformly 3/4/5, and mostly 4/5, across a wide range of subjects. College admissions and matriculations were as good (or better than) any school in the DMV to HYPS and other top-30s.

This ENTIRE thread is merely a tempest in a teapot. Good private schools will have good AP results even if their courses are not labeled AP. I applaud the schools who are phasing out classes labeled AP. (With luck, my own DC will graduate from one of these top local schools when they are a bit older.)

The goals of the AP program are, in my view, to (a) raise revenue for the College Board, (b) help smaller/poorer public schools with detailed guidance on college-preparatory curricula, and (c) help smaller/poorer public schools offer differentiated college-preparatory tracks/classes. None of those are applicable to a good quality private school. College admissions folks DO care about the AP scores, but if coming from a good quality private, they do not care if the course is LABELED “AP”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(Chuckle)

At my (non-boarding) private in a different metro, there never were any courses labeled AP. Curricula for courses were NOT centered on whatever the College Board said, but they absolutely were challenging and rigorous. Each year, the school enabled any student to sit the AP exam for any course s/he took that year. No special AP tutoring or such was used (or even needed). Results were uniformly 3/4/5, and mostly 4/5, across a wide range of subjects. College admissions and matriculations were as good (or better than) any school in the DMV to HYPS and other top-30s.

This ENTIRE thread is merely a tempest in a teapot. Good private schools will have good AP results even if their courses are not labeled AP. I applaud the schools who are phasing out classes labeled AP. (With luck, my own DC will graduate from one of these top local schools when they are a bit older.)

The goals of the AP program are, in my view, to (a) raise revenue for the College Board, (b) help smaller/poorer public schools with detailed guidance on college-preparatory curricula, and (c) help smaller/poorer public schools offer differentiated college-preparatory tracks/classes. None of those are applicable to a good quality private school.

College admissions folks DO care about the AP scores, but if coming from a good quality private, they do not care if the course is LABELED “AP”.

[b]

This is pure BS-take the UC system-if your course isn’t labeled AP you don’t get the GPA bump that comes with it-doesn’t matter if it’s the most rigorous course at your private school and considered an AP equivalent.

Also, the AP humanities do require some “teaching to the test” as there are rubrics and you need to understand what the rubrics want you to do. My kids are taking a prep class on my dime to learn so they can do halfway decent on the APUSH exam.

I’m for a phased approach to this problem-keep AP classes in math and science and then do away in Humanities. That way a private school kid can still maintain AP status to compete against the publics sky high GPA’s that seem to be so much more impressive to colleges. The math and science curricula are more formulaic anyhow so no need not to follow the AP prescribed curriculum. But, to take the arrogant private school approach that AP’s don’t matter at all anymore is short sighted. It’s a data point that can be used to a student’s advantage and really no downside to not taking the exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This is pure BS-take the UC system-if your course isn’t labeled AP you don’t get the GPA bump that comes with it-doesn’t matter if it’s the most rigorous course at your private school and considered an AP equivalent.

Actual UC Admissions folks do not agree with the claim above. They have explicitly said they understand that many schools do not offer courses labeled AP and that they do adjust their internal scoring to reflect Honors courses and such. Do you really think UC is penalizing applicants from Exeter or Andover for not having courses with an AP label ? That is such a laugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This is pure BS-take the UC system-if your course isn’t labeled AP you don’t get the GPA bump that comes with it-doesn’t matter if it’s the most rigorous course at your private school and considered an AP equivalent.

Actual UC Admissions folks do not agree with the claim above. They have explicitly said they understand that many schools do not offer courses labeled AP and that they do adjust their internal scoring to reflect Honors courses and such. Do you really think UC is penalizing applicants from Exeter or Andover for not having courses with an AP label ? That is such a laugh.

They actually explicitly state the opposite in materials UC Regents puts out. They do NOT adjust for out of state classes unless they are AP or IB. They will NOT give weighting for honors

why make this up? I will pull the reference from official UC pages

Conjecture from your cousin's uncle who worked at UC doesnt count