<p>My small prestigious private prep school did away with the AP program several years ago. I haven’t heard/read anything official about their switch, but over the years I’ve heard that their reasoning was something like what OP said - they don’t want us learning for the sake of a single test. They believed there was too much rote memorization, etc going on with APs and that they much preferred allowing their well-qualified teachers creating their own curricula in a way that they would enjoy teaching and would therefore teach more effectively and presumably in a way that would be enjoyed by students; ultimately resulting in a “better” education, mainly in the sense that topics are covered more in depth/on a conceptual level rather than aiming for breadth. </p>
<p>What remains is a regular and an honors option for most core classes (plus some variations, e.g. Topics in Chemistry vs. Regular Chemistry vs. Honors Chemistry). The school is fairly rigorous overall, so almost everyone can find a satisfactory level in choosing between the two. In addition, my college counselor mentioned to me in passing that they did extensive research before making the switch, and all college admissions officers they talked to responded with a resounding “get rid of it.” Apparently it hasn’t hurt the school’s applicants, as about 25% of the Class of 2011 (~100 kids) got into top 20 schools.</p>
<p>Frankly I’m pretty surprised that I haven’t heard of a single high school doing the same from anyone on CC, and even within our league of similar quality schools.</p>