<p>Yes, I can see your point in the better private schools trying to game the admissions departments with these ploys. And they have to be betting their reputation on it, because if they let a poor quality product graduate and blend in with the rest of the class at college, the colleges will wise up and downgrade the entire graduating class.</p>
<p>Works great when you can kick out your underachievers (by not inviting them back for next year in the early years). Don’t think the even the better publics can do this and not damage themselves irreparibly.</p>
<p>As to elimination of the AP designation, quite frankly those guys tell you what to teach (teaching to the exam). If I were in admissions, I’d take the student that passed the test (with a 5) who didn’t take the AP course first! BTW, I only took the 2nd semester of the AP European History course and got the 5 way back when. Independent study was a better method of learning than their curriculum.</p>
<p>AP has just become another scam. We have a testing industry that writes the tests and then sells us the text books and test prep courses to prepare for the tests. I can certainly see how it’s in McGraw-Hill and the College Board’s financial interest but I fail to see how it is in my child’s intellectual interest. The school I work for does not teach AP courses (although many of our students take and do well on AP tests) but we do offer students the opportunity to take real college classes for credit at the university next door. While I know that not all schools have the luxury of that sort of relationship, I think our students benefit from experience in a real college classroom, with a real professor’s expectations, and, I would hope, that their grades in these classes tell a college more about their suitability than some canned course and test.</p>
<p>As for ranking…reminds me of a joke, “What do you call a man who graduates at the bottom of his medical school class?” “Doctor.”</p>
<p>A bit off topic - - but I’m not a real fan of AP classes. They are no substitute for taking the class in college. D was advised that it was ok to take the AP to satisfy a gened requirement (math, foreign lang)) in an area in which she had no interest - - but D’s advisor insisted that if D wanted to take upper level math or wanted to major in physics, engineering or subj where calc was a foundation, taking the AP in lieu of a full sem of college calc would be a big mistake.</p>
<p>As for schs and AP classes, I think part of the scam is enrolling kids in the AP class and not reporting the scores to colleges (the B+ in AP chem wouldn’t be worth a whole lot if college knew that the kid scored only a 2 on the AP exam).</p>
<p>Maybe not what you’re looking for, but Crossroads School in LA is a progressive day school that does send kids to Ivys, although it’s not its primary goal, by any means.</p>
<p>I agree that going to high school already knowing where you want to go to college suggests you are not prepared to change much in high school, which sort of defeats the purpose - especially of a progressive school. </p>
<p>Putney School in Vt is progressive and does a good job of getting kids into where they want to go.</p>