AP Classes to be Eliminated by 2022

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s great the DC privates are dropping APs, stress/anxiety and pressure to have perfect grades and perfect test scores has been taking a toll for years on students. Some colleges are becoming test optional, I think this a much needed reset...Let’s remember that the College Board, US News and World Reports, etc. are businesses concerned about profits.

“A spokesman for the College Board provided this statement on the schools' decision: “Over the past decade, the students at just these D.C.-area independent schools have earned more than 39,000 credit hours at the colleges to which they sent their AP scores. That equates to nearly $59 million in tuition savings at highly selective colleges, not to mention the head start these students received in their majors -- particularly in STEM disciplines. At a time when the placement, credit and admission benefits of AP have never been greater, it’s surprising that these schools would choose to deny their students these advantages.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/06/19/eight-private-high-schools-washington-area-are-dropping-out-ap-program

I think you need to re-read all the statements above - kids at these top privates who don't take AP classes still take the AP exam and will continue to do so. Their regular classes are rigorous enough, with just a little extra memorization, to prepare them for the AP exam. That is why they are dropping the courses. They are unnecessary and a waste of time when the students could be taking courses with much deeper curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we got Sidwell's letter this morning. We support the decision, not that Sidwell emphasized the APs much anyway.

It would have been nice if Sidwell consulted the parent and student bodies before deciding —important constitutents, don’t you think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we got Sidwell's letter this morning. We support the decision, not that Sidwell emphasized the APs much anyway.

It would have been nice if Sidwell consulted the parent and student bodies before deciding —important constitutents, don’t you think?

No a democracy. Parents who don’t like it can walk with their feet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s great the DC privates are dropping APs, stress/anxiety and pressure to have perfect grades and perfect test scores has been taking a toll for years on students. Some colleges are becoming test optional, I think this a much needed reset...Let’s remember that the College Board, US News and World Reports, etc. are businesses concerned about profits.

“A spokesman for the College Board provided this statement on the schools' decision: “Over the past decade, the students at just these D.C.-area independent schools have earned more than 39,000 credit hours at the colleges to which they sent their AP scores. That equates to nearly $59 million in tuition savings at highly selective colleges, not to mention the head start these students received in their majors -- particularly in STEM disciplines. At a time when the placement, credit and admission benefits of AP have never been greater, it’s surprising that these schools would choose to deny their students these advantages.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/06/19/eight-private-high-schools-washington-area-are-dropping-out-ap-program

I think you need to re-read all the statements above - kids at these top privates who don't take AP classes still take the AP exam and will continue to do so. Their regular classes are rigorous enough, with just a little extra memorization, to prepare them for the AP exam. That is why they are dropping the courses. They are unnecessary and a waste of time when the students could be taking courses with much deeper curriculum.

That's right. Students at the elite privates have and will continue to take the AP exams, just not the classes.

[Anonymous]

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.

This. I'm an Ivy League grad who back in the day started with sophomore standing due to AP credits. The self justifying nature of this forum on DCUM about what parents think they are paying for at the Big 3-5 is always entertaining - as is what people seem to think Ivy schools and educations are like (even people like me that can make individualized statements like in my experience my HS AP math was more challenging than my core college courses). In today's world, APs have proliferated and become too equalized. The elites opting out is logical to find a new differentiating status and privilege edge.

[Anonymous]

Th ere is minimal if any "tuition savings" at the schools these kids go to. The AP 's are pointless and it is nice to see the beginning of the end

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we got Sidwell's letter this morning. We support the decision, not that Sidwell emphasized the APs much anyway.

It would have been nice if Sidwell consulted the parent and student bodies before deciding —important constituents, don’t you think?

No a democracy. Parents who don’t like it can walk with their feet

To where, when all the similarly-situated schools made the same decision on the same day in the same announcement? Hmm, I wonder where the FTC commissioners send their kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we got Sidwell's letter this morning. We support the decision, not that Sidwell emphasized the APs much anyway.

It would have been nice if Sidwell consulted the parent and student bodies before deciding —important constitutents, don’t you think?

Not really. It's not like there were any courses called AP Subject anyhow. The kids will still take tests in subject areas of interest, so it really is much of a change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Th ere is minimal if any "tuition savings" at the schools these kids go to. The AP 's are pointless and it is nice to see the beginning of the end

I personally had enough AP credits to start college registering as a sophomore. I was able to triple major. It was a huge advantage for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we got Sidwell's letter this morning. We support the decision, not that Sidwell emphasized the APs much anyway.

It would have been nice if Sidwell consulted the parent and student bodies before deciding —important constitutents, don’t you think?

Not really. It's not like there were any courses called AP Subject anyhow. The kids will still take tests in subject areas of interest, so it really is much of a change.

Actually there are a few according to the Principa’s letter and FAQs.

[Anonymous]

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.

This. I'm an Ivy League grad who back in the day started with sophomore standing due to AP credits. The self justifying nature of this forum on DCUM about what parents think they are paying for at the Big 3-5 is always entertaining - as is what people seem to think Ivy schools and educations are like (even people like me that can make individualized statements like in my experience my HS AP math was more challenging than my core college courses). In today's world, APs have proliferated and become too equalized. The elites opting out is logical to find a new differentiating status and privilege edge.

The proliferation of AP courses to a large minority of students has completed watered down their challenge and purpose. But it's not true that they are too equalizing. I attended a panel last summer of college admissions directors, who talked about how they could compare students coming from vastly different educational backgrounds. They have school profiles that give them a better idea of the actual challenge of each school, and they rely on that knowledge. They passed out redacted applications with the school profiles to show us. It was eye-opening. Seniors in small rural county public schools have to be compared to those from independent schools, who also have to be compared to home schooled kids. AP courses show that a kid has challenged themselves to the utmost, but if a school doesn't offer AP, the admissions people only look to see if the kid took the most challenging courses that his individual school offered. So eliminating the designation really doesn't do anything in terms of the college admissions picture because they will still be evaluating if a student challenged himself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we got Sidwell's letter this morning. We support the decision, not that Sidwell emphasized the APs much anyway.

It would have been nice if Sidwell consulted the parent and student bodies before deciding —important constituents, don’t you think?

No a democracy. Parents who don’t like it can walk with their feet

To where, when all the similarly-situated schools made the same decision on the same day in the same announcement? Hmm, I wonder where the FTC commissioners send their kids?

Might be anticompetitive behavior., leaving them free to raise tuitions unchecked.

[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.

Really? Well then what do you consider the SAT and ACT? Also, private school kids will still take the AP exams, they just don't need special prescribed curriculum AP classes to do well.

I consider the ACT sand SAT the last existing exams by which to actually compare students across schools, and I expect many more kids to opt out of them and apply to test optional schools. I also really don’t expect students will take APs on their own, given that the whole point of these courses is that they don’t have to cover the same material as the AP tests.

I think we’re moving to a point where truly the only number that matters is your parents’ income. If you can write a check to the university, you get to go. It’s not fair but at least it’s honest.

Youa re plainly wrong. The truth is that is how it always has been and that we are moving away from that now. More elite colleges and universities are saving spaces for kids who are the first in their families to attend college, more schools are setting aside money to defray costs for poor and middle income students, more schools are downgrading the weight of legacy status, fewer rich privileged and upper class kids get into the elite colleges and universites every year as these schools are changing many if their policies to get a more economically diverse student body. Its is much tougher for private school students to get into the top colleges and universities than it was a generation ago mostly because so many kids who previously would never have been able to even consider an Ivy or top SLAC are now applying in record numbers.

Yes and no. $70+K/year tuitions are, once again, giving the rich easier access to private colleges and universities. At the same time, some of those schools justify/rationalize this retrenchment by actively seeking out first-gen and low income students and removing financial barrier to their attendance. There’s still a missing middle (which may, at the national level at least, be the lower upper middle class) who don’t fall into either category and who donut apply or who opt out if admitted, or take on serious debt to attend these schools. Those kids, in turn, gravitate toward flagship publics (which in places like CA and VA have it grown as fast as the population). And the best public Universities, beset by funding uncertainties, have significantly raised tuition and increasingly turned to OOS and international students to help pay the bills. It actually looks like a much more economically-stratified higher education system than I encountered in the late 70s/early 80s when Harvard’s tuition + room and board ranged from $8K-12K a year and Berkeley’s law school tuition was $750 a semester. It’s no doubt tougher for the “gentleman’s C”-type private school student to get into an elite college or university than it was back in the day when women and minorities were almost categorically excluded from those hallowed halls, but a relatively high-performing full pay private school student still has a serious edge over a public school student of the same race/gender/ability/locale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we got Sidwell's letter this morning. We support the decision, not that Sidwell emphasized the APs much anyway.

It would have been nice if Sidwell consulted the parent and student bodies before deciding —important constituents, don’t you think?

No a democracy. Parents who don’t like it can walk with their feet

To where, when all the similarly-situated schools made the same decision on the same day in the same announcement? Hmm, I wonder where the FTC commissioners send their kids?

To public school of course. If you don't like it, send your kid to public. You won't be missed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we got Sidwell's letter this morning. We support the decision, not that Sidwell emphasized the APs much anyway.

It would have been nice if Sidwell consulted the parent and student bodies before deciding —important constituents, don’t you think?

No a democracy. Parents who don’t like it can walk with their feet

To where, when all the similarly-situated schools made the same decision on the same day in the same announcement? Hmm, I wonder where the FTC commissioners send their kids?

To public school of course. If you don't like it, send your kid to public. You won't be missed.

You are a good example of the arrogance and entitled behavior of private schools, including faculty and administration.