Some High Schools Are Dropping Out of the Advanced Placement Program

AP classes

AP Classes can be great or mediocre...just like everything else but the exams are standardized meaning you can compare how much students learn about a subject. In our area some high schools tseem to think the more students that take the exam the better...however when you campare scores and find only a few kids really pass the exam you look closer...other schools have fewer students taking the exam and more students passing the exam. and most colleges only give credit for 5's and sometimes 4's. If your student doesn't get a 5 do you really want him/her to get credit and not take the class in college? after all most classes build on what they learned or were supposed to learn in that area, Also since these colleges all use SAT or ACT as a sliderule for admission ...why not give credits for those AP exam grades of 5? most private universities do not allow credit for AP exams ....however state universities do?

american kids

on average arent even smart enough to be in ap classes anyways... fix the base curriculum before you offer them advanced classes. America cant get anything straight, and now... we fail

Former AP Teacher

Agree with Joe Swiss' comments. Although AP teachers teach to the tests, AP tests are constructed by college profs and validated by having college students, who are taking equivalency courses, take parts of the tests. The scores of those students are then compared with how those kids have done in their actual classes.

If an AP test is well constructed, it will examine the types of broad-based information that students typically learn in a college intro class.

The AP program grows at a rate of about 10% per year (too fast

IMHO). When a prestigious school announces that it is dropping AP, the news garners headlines like the USN&WR headline. But the trend is in the other direction. Of course, man bites dog trumps the banal every time. The problem is that the public is then left with the wrong impression.

Who's interests are paramount?

Any sort of standardized testing is a profit-generating mechanism for someone, so of course there will be pressure to keep the status quo regardless of how it really effects students.

More and more, this can be said for colleges, in general.

Destroys GPA

Our Metropolis' schools were participating in AP programs. The result, 4.0 Honor Roll students were failed miserably and ended up with average GPA's under 3.0 and worse.

Those who were courted by universities due to their previous grades became unwanted damaged goods once their AP GPA's were tallied.

I pulled my 4.0 GPA daughter out of the AP programs within the first few months in her junior year and she's one of the very few who received a full scholarship thanks to paying attention to what SHE needed, not what some theorist's pipe dreams are.

Usefulness of AP

The AP program may be useful in getting the intro college course credits waived off. My son graduated with the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma but also took 7 AP courses and got an AP certificate. The depth of IB is such that it doesn't teach to the test. My two nieces in Denmark went through the IB diploma as well. I am really impressed by the IB program; the only sad thing is that schools do not have well trained teachers to teach math and sciences. Other subjects are fine. Unlike AP, each subject in IB involves two three hour exams - one covering the breadth and the second goes in depth into the subject matter.

It's not the top 1%, it's the bottom 99% of Schools

For stellar 1% schools like the University of Chicago Laboratory schools, dropping th AP is not an issue. The Labs have the reputation that universities know and respect. The Labs have teachers that go above and beyond.

AP is an issue in remaining 99% of schools, especially public schools, that have a 50+ year history of dumbing down and doing what is easy over time if there is no standard. AP in these schools is required in order to force the schools and faculty to teach a class with a decent level of requirements. AP is also a clear signal to parents that a school is dumbing down teaching when it is dropped.

AP can save the money~

I took the AP this year and get 5 grade in Calculus BC and both of the Physics C, I only used 1 and a half months to study the courses by using the Pre-books(Barron's).

frankly saying, it was very unconvinience to International Students to take the Exam, I lived in a city near by BeiJing, nut I have to take the Exam in Singapore, wow, I had to take plane for 6 hours.

emm, I think AP is a useful Exam that can reflect ur academical ability and potential.

best wishes to everyone who'll take the AP next year including me. I'll take 7 subjects in Chemistry, Stat, both Eco, CS AB, US histroy and US G&P. each of the Exams to me is a challenge becauseI've to study all the subjects by myself!

Temujin Van Geng

PRC

AP can save the money~

I took the AP this year and get 5 grade in Calculus BC and both of the Physics C, I only used 1 and a half months to study the courses by using the Pre-books(Barron's).

frankly saying, it was very unconvinience to International Students to take the Exam, I lived in a city near by BeiJing, nut I have to take the Exam in Singapore, wow, I had to take plane for 6 hours.

emm, I think AP is a useful Exam that can reflect ur academical ability and potential.

best wishes to everyone who'll take the AP next year including me. I'll take 7 subjects in Chemistry, Stat, both Eco, CS AB, US histroy and US G&P. each of the Exams to me is a challenge becauseI've to study all the subjects by myself!

Temujin Van Geng

PRC

AP coa save the money~

I took the AP this year and get 5 grade in Calculus BC and both of the Physics C, I only used 1 and a half months to study the courses by using the Pre-books(Barron's).

frankly saying, it was very unconvinience to International Students to take the Exam, I lived in a city near by BeiJing, nut I have to take the Exam in Singapore, wow, I had to take plane for 6 hours.

emm, I think AP is a useful Exam that can reflect ur academical ability and potential.

best wishes to everyone who'll take the AP next year including me. I'll take 7 subjects in Chemistry, Stat, both Eco, CS AB, US histroy and US G&P. each of the Exams to me is a challenge becauseI've to study all the subjects by myself!

Temujin Van Geng

PRC