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No, and I don’t agree with your definition of the term, either. Gatekeeping just means that a kid’s decision to take an AP course requires somebody’s approval. At the university where I work lots of courses are marked “By permission only” in the catalog. That’s gatekeeping. And there’s nothing “hard and fast” or “black and white” about it. It just implies a recognition that a course involves certain challenges and it’s unwise to let someone take that course without an effort to verify that they are properly prepared for those challenges. You prefer a system in which this is ultimately left up to the student. You’re entitled to that opinion, but it’s not reasonable to say that a system in which it’s ultimately left up to the school is inherently rigid or simpleminded.</p>
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But surely you can see that it has crucial implications for the meaningfulness of the results?</p>