Our son’s school did away with AP classes, but still offers the tests to appease parents. The college counseling office has said there is no point in taking the tests, unless he wants to score a 5 to highlight talent in a particular subject; however, they make the point that there are many more and better ways of doing so, that are a much better use of his time (like focusing on his rigorous class schedule, clubs and activities in that area, etc.).
If it’s about college credit, many/most colleges that students coming out of BS are attending are doing so less or not at all. I read that one college said that if you want an education from college X, you get an education from college X, not from a bunch of AP classes (paraphrasing).
And does it really make sense to cram in a bunch of AP credits in hopes of graduating a semester early? To that I’d say take a breath; what’s the rush?
As far as placement into higher classes at the start of college, many/most colleges will look at the courses the student took and/or administer their own placement test(s).
I admit that when I first looked into this, I was very scepticle and weary of my son not taking AP tests, thinking that if everyone else is doing it, not doing so would put him at a disadvantage. The best info we’ve found to date indicates that is just not the case. So we’ll save those AP test dollars for a nice family meal instead.