Reply to AP Classes to be Eliminated by 2022

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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.  [quote][b]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][/quote][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.

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