Impending Significant Change in AP Tests

mimk6
Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:21:39 +0000

We do not a deeper AP program since nothing will ever elevate it to a true college course. What we need is a high school that is true high school, and not some kind of hybrid between an elementary school and a remedial community college.



I disagree. One thing that AP and IB courses provide is a standardized curriculum that allows colleges to assess how a student performs in comparison to peers. If every high school is coming up with its own curriculum, it’s going to be very difficult to actually determine how much a student was challenged. The AP courses essentially follow the same curriculum and how a student does in L.A. can be compared more easily to a student in Chicago than a student in a course whose title communicates nothing to a college admissions officer. The AP and IB programs create some parity within high school education for high-achieving students. And I would add that many of the AP courses at our high school are widely known to be more rigorous than many of the courses at our non-remedial community college.