Reply to Accelerated and Enrichment Pre-Calculus

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]At my kids school they only offer AP pre calc and on level.

My kid is taking calculus BC next year after taking AP pre calc [/quote]

Our school doesn't offer AP precalc.[/quote]

That's a good thing.... AP precalc is substantially less challenging than honors precalc.[/quote]
then why are some schools replacing honors precalc with AP?   [/quote]

Perception and $.

AP is perceived to have a greater benefit in rigor and college credit just because of the "AP" attached to it.  Communities less in tune with academic reality will buy that hook, line and sinker, and principals find it easier/less costly to offer just two variants -- on-level and AP.

Meanwhile, the more rigorous Honors PreCalc, where more might struggle but where more is learned, where those with math talent are met at their level, and where students are better prepared for AP Calc BC, might not be made available, absent large numbers of families pressing for it.

As a side-bonus for principals, they can then suggest a two-year progression of AP Calc AB and then AP Calc BC from the AP PreCalc, rather than having to offer Multivariable Calc after students follow PreCalc with AP Calc BC.  Again, enough folks buy that line at these schools, and the several at each of these schools who are mathy enough to fit better in AP Calc BC (and whose families are willing to argue that with the adminiatration) can be told, "Well, OK, but don't say we didn't warn you, and, by the way, by getting this "exception" you'll need to arrange to take dual-enrollment MVC at MC rather than take it here if you are going that route."

Only the finest of systemic academic inequity is allowed within MCPS... :roll:

Offering AP PreCalc is fine (as is having the [i]option[/i] to take AB afterwards as long as BC is made available for those needing that), but, among the PreCalc courses, MCPS should be ensuring that the most rigorous non-magnet variant is available at every school.  If Whitman's A/E is yet more rigorous than the Honors PreCalc offered elsewhere, then that should become the uniformly available Honors course.[/quote]

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