A VA lawmaker has introduced a bill to standardize what AP courses and scores will be accepted at all VA Universities. I would doubt it will pass, but what do you think of the idea?
Presumably, you mean the proposal described at http://college.usatoday.com/2015/01/07/proposed-virginia-bill-may-standardize-ap-credits/
Some state university systems have standardized credit units for AP scores.
However, subject credit and placement are still likely to differ between campuses, due to differences in the organization and content of the frosh level courses that AP courses’ content may overlap with. So the result could be that, at some schools, some students may get more credit units from AP scores than they do now, but they can only be applied as free elective credit units. So that may allow a few students to graduate earlier (or avoid graduating late), if they otherwise complete the subject requirements for their majors and general education in fewer than the usual number of credits needed to graduate – of course, this is mainly for those with majors that do not have relatively high numbers of credit units of subject requirements.
But the number of such students may not actually be that many, since students with lots of AP scores are probably the stronger students who tend to take full course loads anyway, and are probably less likely to be under heavy financial pressure to graduate as soon as possible (poorer students are less likely to have a plethora of AP courses offered by their high schools).
That’s why I don’t see it having much of a chance of passing. BUT…if it did, the way I read it, it would mean that subject credit and placement could NOT differ between campuses. A 3 in AP CalcAB, for example, would mean credit and Va. Tech and at UVA (vs now where there is a difference).
If they are going to do that, they should also standardize course content and grading policies. If a degree is a degree is a degree then give the same level of coursework and exams to students at the cc’s and less selective Universities as they do at UVa, Virginia Tech, and William and Mary.
I honestly don’t think it’s going to pass, at least not without resistance from state universities. The colleges themselves know how well students with AP credit do in their own curriculum. For instance, at William and Mary it recommends students to take the introduction biology and not skipping it because there is a certain depth and rigor to the curriculum not found in the standard high school AP class. If they were to implement this policy, they would either have to make the introduction class less rigorous or revamp their curriculum.
Each university has its own way they approach the subject and draws different types of students. I’m not sure if they’d be doing anyone any favors by standardizing the course credit at each university
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?151+ful+HB1336 is the actual bill. It is vague enough (referring to “course credit”) that there could be some leeway in terms of credit units versus subject credit and placement.
If commonality in subject credit were required, it is possible that it could be unified based on the most restrictive policy rather than the least restrictive policy (i.e. if one of the schools required a 5 for subject credit, then all would require a 5).