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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DE is generally regarded as a way to inflate HS grades. They aren’t as hard or rigorous as AP classes/curriculum but they get the bump in GPA. This is because they are still taught by HS teachers (as are the AP courses but the AP courses follow a curriculum and have the accountability and measure of an exam). This is how my kids who took AP courses explained it to me. The “gen Ed” track kids boost their GPAs this way but generally lacked rigor in their transcript.

There are exceptions, I suppose, for novelty classes. But most of the “advanced” courses the selective university will want students to take from them anyway and won’t be impressed by someone taking a substandard offering in HS.

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I find opinions like this obnoxious. First of all, my junior has several AP classes already. DC took DE English Composition this year instead of AP (whatever the language art equivalent is). And it is an excellent class. DC has done more writing in a semester than has been done the entirety of the 10 years in FCPS. Getting good -and timely- feedback. And it will only benefit DC in college so, yes, it is absolutely worth the +1 bump.

I have been way less impressed with DC's AP classes which are rigid, unimaginative, and fairly high level reviews of the subject matters. Not all of the teachers should be teaching AP classes, frankly, whereas the DE teacher teaches at NOVA regularly. And does it well.

I realize there is this AP arms race around here and anyone who doesn't take as many as offered as viewed as an inferior student. But that is wrong. And unfair. [/quote]

What you think of as an "excellent" class may not impress the college admissions folks--especially a community college level English composition class which often is viewed as remedial instruction.  And, yes, consistent writing with feedback is a hallmark of those kinds of classes--it's how colleges get kids up to writing speed if they haven't done that already.  The class size and professor schedules are geared to make that work far more than a K-12 settings.  But the fact is that the academic cohort is often lower at a community college than in the AP program at a high school and the grades reflect that.  If your kid hasn't done AP in language arts, this will be looked at as dodging harder content/competition rather than more advanced content.  But it sounds like you've gotten what the actual value of the course is -- more practice writing and more feedback on writing.  [/quote]

It is an excellent class regardless of what some AO thinks. And if that is the difference in admissions, so be it. But my kid made a more thoughtful decision as to what DC wanted and would be a benefit than just engaging in the AP race. And frankly, many kids in the class are high performing kids who made the same decision. Mine is going a STEM path so there was no utility, other than to appease some AO, to taking the AP Lang class.

You can put it down all you want. So can the AO reps. But that says more about you all than it does the kids who take DE or the classes themselves. [/quote]

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