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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Most kids in AP Pre-Calc at our school are juniors. It replaced the intensified/honors version of the class. They will go in to take AP Calc senior year. [/quote]
Schools in this area have placed calculus-bound kids into AP Precalc. But the course was not designed for them. When launching the course, the College Board said they designed it for kids who would take precalc as a senior which is why the course was not focused on just preparing students for calculus. The CB said they expected most students taking the course would fit the above profile and urged districts to not exclude non-honors students from AP Precalculus. It has never been clear why DMV districts disregarded that advice and put honors students into AP Precalc but not non-honors students.  [/quote]

I don’t live in DMV and mostly juniors at our school will take it. After Alg 2, but before Calc AB.

Sounds like the College Board did not properly plan it.

[/quote]
It was a good plan as conceived. S[b]tudents taking Algebra 1 in 8th grade or earlier have a chance to earn AP calculus credits in high school. But for students who take Algebra 1 in 9th grade, they only get to precalc by senior year (absent summer courses/doubling up) and do not have a chance to earn AP math credits. Therefore, AP Precalc was conceived as a way of giving 9th grade Algebra 1 students a chance to earn AP math credits too. 
[/b]
However, despite its conception, [b]some districts have placed honors students into AP Precalc and not non-honors students as had been intended. Why? Hard to know. There is a popular movement now to discourage students from pursuing the calculus pathway in lieu of statistics/data literacy.[/b] AP Precalc would make the calculus pathway more attractive so perhaps non-honors students were excluded from AP Precalc to make it less likely they take the calculus pathway. Or, districts may be in an arms race with each other and want to give honors students as many AP credits as possible. Hard to know what the reason was. Maybe a combination of both.

The net result is a sub-optimal outcome where calculus-bound students are being directed into AP Precalc even though they don't need AP Precalc credits, while non-honors students are not being placed into AP Precalc even though they would benefit from AP Precalc credits.[/quote]

Interesting. No one ever explained to us this reasoning for changing pre-calc to AP.

Last year when the email was sent out to parents about the change to AP, the school received pushback from a lot of parents who didn't want their kid signed up for another AP. The communication from our HS stated clearly that the classes would be exactly the same as the pre-calc Honors that they'd already registered for, but it would now just have the AP designation.

These parents were unmoved. They'd curated their kid's junior year schedules with the number of APs they were comfortable with and didn't want more. They didn't buy that the class would move at a slower pace. They also believed it was a money grab by the school/CB, as taking the exam has a mandatory vibe at our school even if not stated outright. The school responded by naming one class pre calc AP and another pre-calc Honors to placate those parents. (The sophomore parents didn't seem to mind the change; there aren't that many AP classes at our school for 10th and they were happy to get the gpa bump for a class their kid was going to take anyway.)

I just took a quick peek at the math pathways chart and it has changed. There are still 2 different pre-calc classes offered, both are now AP, but with different number designations. One is AP pre-calc (sophomore year) leading to BC to MV/LA.  The other is AP PreCalc (junior year) leading to AP Calc AB, AP Stats, AP Comp Sci and a few non-AP for senior year.

The other option for juniors is Data Science Honors leading to AP Stats as a senior. And then, as you've stated, for kids who started the HS math with Alg 1 have the option of taking AP PreCalc as a junior.

It does appear that our school is offering more choices for kids now who aren't interested in the Calc BC/MV path. Maybe it just takes a while for the school to work this class into their current systems.

But this can only be a good thing for those who hit their stride in math sometime in HS and not earlier.[/quote]

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