AP and IB fees?
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Anonymous
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One of the things on the chopping block in the budget debate is the county covering AP and IB fees.
Does anyone know how much these fees are and what they would cost the average AP or IB student? |
Anonymous
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The fee for each AP exam is $89. The fee for each IB exam is $67.
There is no "average student", as you can take anywhere from 1 or more AP/IB classes. |
Anonymous
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Err, sorry--those fees for IB are the MYP program. For the diploma program it's $104.
http://www.ibo.org/become/fees/assessmentfees/ |
Anonymous
Per course? |
Anonymous
Per exam. Usually 6 -7 exams. Also in DC's school - IB kids will also double dip and take the AP exam in the same course. |
Anonymous
| This has ramifications beyond money. If the county doesn't pay and it's left up to parents, some parents won't pay - especially if they believe their child won't pass with a 3 on the AP exam and have a chance to receive college credit. Some will be reluctant due to financial hardship. Either way testing participation will go down. AP teachers will end up encouraging select students to take the exam - those students they feel will receive a qualifying score. Teachers/schools do not look as good if they teach AP and students don't get a least a 3 on the exam. By paying for the AP tests, FCPS is almost assuring participation in the exam. Lots of sides to this. |
Anonymous
GOOD! We should not be wasting money for kids who have no chance/desire to pass to take the exam. If a student doesn't believe they can get at least a 3 on the exam, they have no business taking it. As for financial need, there will still be fee waivers, just like their are for the TJ test, school sports, etc. |
Anonymous
| ^ and seniors won't care re: the weighted grade bump that comes from taking the AP exam. Their college results are already in. Having the "AP" designation on their transcripts for starting senior year will be their primary concern. |
Anonymous
Can't speak to how Fairfax would handle fee waivers but in MCPS we pay for all the AP/IB tests and there are no fee waivers. Some schools do provide financial aid for the fees but it comes out of privately raised funds. Definitely affects participation rates. |
Anonymous
| The whole legitimacy of AP will be somewhat called into question. Without scores to correlate to instructional quality, almost anything can be called AP. |
Anonymous
Even if FCPS doesn't offer waivers, the college board offers reduced fees (for AP tests) https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/takingtheexam/exam-fees $26 per test. No reason for FCPS to be paying full price for every student who takes it. |
Anonymous
There will still be scores. Why would there no longer be scores? If the class is weak, no one will pass (regardless of who is paying for the exams). If the class is strong, most if not all will pass. The vast, vast majority of the country has to pay for their own AP exams. I had never heard of a county paying for it before working in FCPS. |
Anonymous
| For many years FCPS did not pay for these exams. They can go back to the old way of not paying for them. There are waivers for FARM kids. |
Anonymous
| I do think part of the discussion though should be whether IB is really worth it. Maybe that's next year after they see what taking away the exam fees do. |
Anonymous
Not going to happen. They are paying out the nose to expand IB to middle and elementary schools currently. |