<p>CB doesn’t voice control over the individual school’s policy. Schools pay CB for their teacher workshop and schools/students pay to take the AP exams. CB is a money-making venture, not the ultimate standard of education. Oh, sure, they may be ‘non-profit’, but still seems they are all about money. Their ‘canned’ curriculum is provided for a fee, CB can’t dictate to schools what they can and cannot do with regard to granting AP distinction for a given course. Schools have provided the teacher and paid for the curriculum.</p>
<p>Schools sometimes create these policies to maintain rigor for the last 6 weeks (or more) of the school year. AP subject tests are given in early May and many schools are not out until mid-June or later. If the final grade is based upon the AP exam, students may well shut down/become lazy as there is no ‘incentive’ to stay focused and complete the teacher’s assignments. Discipline becomes an issue. At the risk of being flamed, this kind of student can make a teacher’s life miserable. Remember, the teacher/school is in charge. Not saying this is the case here…or ever involving any of the students represented on this board–but, hey, it does happen.</p>
<p>All too often, the focus is being able to state on college aps that students took the most rigorous course—NOT on actual academic rigor!! Parents would be wise to defer to the school on this one as it makes the kids work hard and stay focused. If they honestly can’t do the work, they don’t deserve the AP distinction. Doubt these rules were changed in the middle of the game. If they were, there might be room for complaint. JMO…</p>
<p>No CB does not control individual school policy. But they do control the use of their trademark name “Advanced Placement” and the use of it by schools and can dictate the terms (educational content, requirement to take the exam, etc.) they deem suitable to defend the use of their name when offering a class using their name.</p>
<p>And believe it or not, I am not against a school having a tough final exam. I am not defending slackers. And if a school wants to weight the final exam in such a way that if they don’t get a “3”, they don’t pass, it is entirely their perogative. However, if you are taking a College Board approved curriculum for an Advanced Placement course that is advertised to the enrollee as such, they should darn well receive the grade they deserve in the course they enrolled in. If it is an “F” because they slacked through the final exam, it should be an “F” in AP ______.</p>
<p>Personally, I think the school is pulling this type of stuff to improve their statistics. Most of the kids who “flunk” the final exam probably did poorly on the actual AP exam. By eliminating them from the enrollment, they can improve the statistic of percentage of enrollees in AP classes who passed the test. It makes the statistic less meaningful. </p>
<p>If they are doing a poor job in preparing students for the actual AP exam and need their own post-test (final exam) to make their passing rate look good, there is a serious problem. Quite frankly, if you are sharp enough to pass the AP exam, you probably won’t forget everything you know in the 3 or 4 weeks between the AP test and the final.</p>
<p>I smell a rat.</p>
<p>The College Board does not get involved in determining if a h.s. has entrance requirements for kids seeking admission to an AP class. Nor do they prohibit a kid from being kicked out mid year if he is slacking. So if they don’t decide what kids can earn the designation, it makes sense that they wouldn’t get involved with which kids can have it taken away. The simple solution would be for the h.s. to clearly warn kids that failing report card grades are possible, and that the month between the CB AP exam & the school’s final in that class will require real work. Slackers would stay away.</p>
<p>StickerShock,</p>
<p>This isn’t about entrance requirements or getting kicked out. It is about getting credit for the course you were enrolled to take.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, if the kid isn’t afraid of or not concerned with failing the final test, losing the AP designation on the transcript is meaningless anyway. It really doesn’t serve as a motivator to the true slacker. </p>
<p>No, I detect that they are trying to cover up the fact that a lower percentage of class takers are passing the AP Exam, showing weak instruction or poor candidate selection of the course.</p>
<p>Actually, it is related to entrance requirements & the threat of being kicked out of the course. If a kid is not willing to work for the entire school year, the school wants the flexibility to take away the AP designation. Schools who identified a slacker earlier in the year would have the freedom to bump him down to a regular level course. This is just a way of making sure kids don’t play a game & take it easy for the last month. Schools have many ways to control how successful their AP passing rates will be. It starts with requiring pre-requisites before a kid can even take the AP class. </p>
<p>Losing the AP designation isn’t meaningless. Underclassmen obviously want both the “rigorous” designation & GPA bump. Seniors don’t want any disruption in their college acceptances or scholarhips.</p>
<p>I’m gonna disagree with you again StickerShock.</p>
<p>You don’t sit in a classroom with a bunch of kids doing the same reading and homework, taking the same AP exam and other tests and then get the course changed to something other than what you classmates took just because you had one poor test.</p>
<p>I don’t see them deciding to upgrade an Honors US History Student to getting AP credit because he took the final exam and aced it.</p>
<p>No your credit comes for the quality of work you did covering the material in the course syllabus, which is part of the transcript. If you took a course covering the AP designated requirements, you should be graded accordingly and to the grade that you performed at (even if failing). </p>
<p>No school I’ve ever heard of allows you to change courses (either voluntarily or involuntarily) after the midterm. Why should this one?</p>
<p>Losing AP designation is meaningless to slackers and ostensibly per the OP that is what this policy is aimed at. They are not engaging the proper nodes in their noodle. And obviously they have given up on their grade by definition, so who cares about the AP designator?</p>
<p>I am arguing that the school should not have the flexibility to take away the AP designator from the student because of performance. First of all it is not a “designator” like some kind of reward. It is a description of the level of content. </p>
<p>Do we change the transcript of kids who get a D in Algebra I Honors because of a poor final exam grade to getting a D in Standard Algebra I (or even a C for that matter)? No. So why are the AP classes different? Definitely not a consistent standard.</p>
<p>And my question never got answered. A kid could perform poorly on the teacher’s exam, (sick, bad exam, poorly prepared), but do fine on the AP. Surely that should prove they’d done AP level work.</p>
<p>When I was in high school we didn’t have AP courses. We had “phases.” In some courses, several different phases were taught at once. The difference being higher phase students had more questions on their quizzes, tests, & exams. More lab work in the sciences. Extra term paper. Etc. If a student who had taken an entire year’s worth of tougher exams failed to hand in one extra “phase” lab report, she’d lose the “phase” designation. Even though she was tested at a higher level all year long. Higher phases earned GPA weighting, just as honors or AP would at most schools today. That’s how I see this AP situation. It seems to be designed to stop senioritis or spring fever. </p>
<p>Mathmom, it would prove that the student prepared for what CB put on their exam. Teachers are free to use current events, additional material – whatever – in their classes. They have the right to test kids on that material as well.</p>
<p>You said it StickerShock.</p>
<p>If you did all the work and answered attempted the more difficult quizes, tests, exams etc, and did all of the tougher lab including the extra phase lab report, they got the full credit for that phase. </p>
<p>These AP students take the same tests, turn in the same homework, etc. They just didn’t score as well on the final test which was the SAME test as everyone else took.</p>
<p>If someone did all the work where you grew up but muffed the final, did they not receive the grade they earned in the phase they completed the work for? Sounds like it to me.</p>
<p>I believe the AP label is supposed to designate the level and quantity of the work attempted, not the resulting accuracy of the student’s work. If it is about the test score, then AP would be an endorsement of the grade not a level of class.</p>
<p>I agree, that teacher’s have the right to have their own final exam, and the right to make it harder than the AP. I just don’t see the point in removing the AP designation from a course, if the student does poorly on her final and aces the AP. Surely getting a bad grade in the course is punishment enough.</p>
<p>Sounds like the school is trying to boost it’s AP success rate, although I don’t know any ranking sites that consider the number of students passing/the number of students completing an AP course.</p>
<p>On the other hand, giving a “mock” AP exam for a final gives the school a good idea of how the students did on the real AP exam, for which the results won’t be available until mid summer. Which may also be a factor in whether the teacher returns.</p>
<p>Mathmom-the new school policy actually does not address your question-though DH and I are asking for a response. Goaliedad et al. are correct-students in these classes are putting in hours ( even as seniors) to keep their grades where they were the first semester. Large number of papers, mock Free Response essays, projects, etc. This entire situation has taken some of the pleasure I wanted our kids to have these last two months and raised the stress level in our home immeasurably. A prior poster is on the mark, when she mentioned that a teacher can “throw in” any type of extraneous material that will not be covered on the actual AP Exam. </p>
<p>My frustration in dealing with various “floor superintendants” at the College Board ( in the AP Division) is matched only by the frustration I feel with administration at kids’ school. I am planning to talk with personnel tomorrow in the AP Audit Division. That is now the division that “authorizes schools to award the AP Designation to courses.” Somehow I cannot imagine that parents/students/teachers-“stakeholders” if you will, would be very pleased to know that a single school can remove a student’s AP designation after the audit procedure. The truly sad thing in all of this is that students will enroll in an AP course-commit to the work and rigor-only to be at the whim of a school administrator for reasons that are still not clear. </p>
<p>I truly appreciate everyone’s feedback-it is helping to clarify questions, frame arguments, etc.</p>