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Normal for this school, which houses a particular popular and very competitive magnet program; my son took this AP class with this teacher. My son’s main frustration was knowing that the high school spent an entire year on what is supposed to be material for a one-semester college course.</p>
<p>The OP asked for thoughts on this part of the article:
I agree. This high school (the “best” one in my school district) boasts about the number of students who take AP tests, and, at least when my son attended, paid for the tests. Personally, I would like to see data on scores – how many kids are doing well on the AP tests? </p>
<p>I don’t know whether Jay’s methodology for this stupid index has changed, but for years (including my son’s high school years), it was a very simplistic one that took only the number of AP tests taken and students into account; it did not count results at all. The bottom line is that the more AP tests taken, the “better” the school’s ranking in the stupid index. Explosive growth in the number of tests, certainly; more money for the College Board.</p>
<p>This teacher’s high school – my son’s school – is very sensitive about its ranking, and encourages students to take AP tests, the more the better, and certainly didn’t care whether a kid was prepared for it. (Many of the teachers care, but the admin just wanted butts in AP test seats.) Since so many other dealings with the school system had been a hassle, I expected resistance to the idea that my spawn take the AP Psych test when he was in 9th grade though he hadn’t taken the course. (AP Psych is the “easiest” AP exam to self-study for.) HA! No problem! And they paid for the test, too, which initially surprised me but really shouldn’t have.</p>