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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Look, the top privates in the DMV collectively decided to do away with APs so they could appear different and better than the top DMV publics and justify charging their exorbitant tuitions.  It was such an obvious move tbat the Justice Department actually looked into whether they violated antitrust laws.

Having said that, colleges make clear that (1) they judge your kids record by reference to the specific school that they attend, so if it doesn’t offer APs the college doesn’t expect to see APs or AP tests and (2) colleges don’t take AP exam scores into account in college admissions anyway.  It’s taking the courses if they’re offered that they care about - not the scores in the exams afterwards.  Remember, most students will take half or more of the AP exams that they’re ever going to take at the end of senior year, after they’ve already been admitted to college. [/quote]

I served on one of the committees that decided to jettison the AP curriculum, and I can tell you that this lovely chesnut you put forth is clearly the product of your own demented fantasy and distrust of private schools. The main reason many of us supported getting rid of AP courses is because of all of the bureaucracy and red tape involved with dealing with the College Board, a questionable monopoly within itself. In order to use the AP designation for any course, a school must submit extensive documentation to show that the course meets the very narrow focus of the AP curriculum. Another determining factor in our decision was that teachers found themselves having to cut seminal information from their curriculum to ensure students were prepared to take the APs in May. Because of the nature of AP exams, this meant U.S. history teachers were cutting units that allowed them and their students to perform deeper dives on issues such as racism and its institutionalization, the emergence of sexual minority liberation movements, and even the 1980s and the implosion of the USSR. The reality is that many of our students take AP exams and earn 4s and 5s on them, so the dropping of the AP designation has not had many deterimental effects. Most people who argue for AP courses do so because they fear their children will be at severe disadvantage when it comes to applying for colleges. As many people have pointed out in other posts on this board, colleges use their own calculations when comparing a student with a weighted GPA versus one whose GPA is unweighted.[/quote]

Sure, Jan.
Because calculus 1 and 2 have such unique perspectives in the fancy private schools.   :roll: [/quote]

I've since left the school, but my sense is that the AP designation still applies to some match, science, and language courses. Our committee discussed the curriculum in other disciplines and how it was deterimental to those classes. But go on with your snark and your pithy responses. We all know how productive those comments can be in an otherwise serious discussion among adults.[/quote]

DP: Other schools still manage to teach and incorporate the topics you mention. Nothing about AP precludes you from covering it in your AP class or even having another entirely different class on it for interested kids if you want to. [/quote]

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