<p>I agree with marite, garland and roshke, and thanks for the background, roshke.</p>
<p>For some reason, it appears Jay Matthews has fallen into a logical flaw common in the social sciences. Because two things occur in sequence does not mean the earlier caused the later. In this case, research has shown that kids who took AP courses in HS do better in college. He concluded that it means AP courses help one to do better! I will leave it to you dear readers to explain the alternative explanation…</p>
<p>This is sad, really, because now someone should look at the impact of doing poorly on the AP exams on college performance etc. I suspect one might find a negative impact? Anyone know what the current research says?</p>