<p>Marite,
Haven't been on in a couple days...I will PM you about the block scheduling, as my explanation is getting WAY too complicated and specific to his program!</p>
<p>One other difference in policy from state to state is how much AP tests cost out of pocket. Our state legislature appropriates a subsidy for all AP test-takers, so that our cost this year will be $25 per test. I think a low-income family could apply for a complete waiver of the test fee. A family paying full list price for AP tests might be more eager to make sure each test "counts" for something more than evidence of a strong high school curriculum, as indeed colleges vary widely in how they treat AP scores.</p>
<p>Tokenadult. Got you. We paid the fees in full. Low income families are eligible for subsidies and waivers.</p>
<p>My DS1 has repeatedly said that it's not because he wants to rack up AP exams that he's taking a particular class, it's that a) the subject interests him; and b) the kids who take AP courses are more likely to care about academics (and that's a BIG core value to him) than in the standard level courses.</p>
<p>One of the advantages of large High Schools is they can offer a variety of AP's, an honors track and then the standard track. At our high school there are only 12 or 13 AP's and if there is an AP offered there is no honors class offered. Scheduling is also a nightmare because there is usually just one AP Physics class offered, one AP calc, etc. The solution to the kids that run out of classes is to just drive to one of the local Colleges where our HS has agreements. My kids friends have taken classes at Lehigh and other close by colleges as seniors.</p>
<p>Our school district does not use weighted grades, some of the suburbs do- at least it is easy for kids applying to the UW system to know their gradepoint as requested by the state schools, there is no incentive to take AP courses to inflate one's gpa.</p>
<p>Yes, I have no idea how grade weighting works and simply hope, assuming that the learners in my care end up with less than a straight-A average, that the difficulty of the courses they take will be noted by someone.</p>
<p>Tokenadult,
I quit worrying about the weighted GPA after learning that so many colleges recalculate GPAs anyway. (His high school transcript <em>and</em> GPA include classes and grades from when he was a 10 year old 6th grader, for cryin' out loud!) Like you, I hope that schools will notice DS's consistent strength of schedule throughout high school. He is a big academic risk-taker; his developing college list includes schools that have historically rewarded that behavior. </p>
<p>DS is debating whether to supplement the school report with copies of some of the more interesting course descriptions, esp. in math. I'm concerned about antagonizing college admin folks with already limited cabinet space ;) -- however, I can absolutely see the value in submitting that info to a specific department (after acceptance) for placement consideration.</p>
<p>countingdown:</p>
<p>When S applied to college, he included the catalog description of every college course he took. Math 101 at Harvard, for example, is not your basic math course. It's a rigorous proof-writing course. I would not include a syllabus.</p>
<p>Marite, Good idea. I will save DS's course catalog from school. His current math teacher is also an excellent advocate for placement -- he tells us that every year, he gets emails from profs saying "XX wants to place into late soph/junior year math, and we don't let people do that." He responds with examples of tests and grades, which are usually plenty to assuage the schools' concerns. All that happens in the placement process, not the admissions process, though.</p>
<p>I thought I'd bump this thread to report that postal mailed AP score reports have arrived in at least town in Minnesota. (According to a CC thread on another forum, this is a day earlier than the earliest reported day for arrival here last year, which I suppose was also a Monday.)</p>
<p>Generally speaking I don't think it's a great idea. I teach APUS to sophomores and they experience ALOT of growing pains. They struggle greatly for much of the year, with rare exceptions. I just don't think freshmen are there yet developmentally.</p>
<p>" are there yet developmentally"- huh? It all depends on the child- some are academically retarded and will never be ready for AP courses, others are gifted and should take that caliber work even in middle school- eg calculus for a few exceptionally gifted in math. We aren't talking about average students when we talk about AP courses, we're talking about giving students appropriate challenges in HS; some 12 year olds are ready (my son the freshman, although he was 13 and a sophomore for starting his first- AP US History), most HS students may never take an AP course, even if they go to college. One size doesn't fit all. We should never hold back academic opportunities because the average child isn't ready for them.</p>
<p>DS2 took AP Gov't as a freshman. Did just fine -- it was his best course all year. He's taking two APs as a soph (US Hist and Enviro). </p>
<p>His older brother (at a different school) took no APs freshman year (school did not allow it, otherwise he would have taken Comp Sci AB), and took BC Calc, Comp Sci AB and US Gov't soph year.</p>
<p>If the kids are willing to assume the responsiblities of an AP course, as DS1 says, "bring it on!"</p>
<p>I think the pushing down of AP into 9th and 10th grade just devalues the AP and no wonder colleges aren't granting credit anymore for those classes--if it is common for 9th and 10th graders to do well enough on the material to get a good AP score, then I question whether the material is really "college level."</p>
<p>I am not talking about the occasional prodigy who is working years ahead of peers; I'm talking about run of the mill "top 5%'ers." If it really is college level work then it should require at least minimal preparation at the high school level. If your high schooler is precocious, then call it what AP really is: an advanced high school track, but let's not kid ourselves that if it's routinely taught to and passed by bright 9th graders it is college level work.</p>
<p>
[quote]
if it is common for 9th and 10th graders to do well enough on the material to get a good AP score, then I question whether the material is really "college level."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The College Board conducts validation studies on this issue. </p>
<p>(from page 13) </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Our state's flagship university is satisfied enough with that grading standard to issue credit for all the AP test scores my son obtained this year. I don't think there is any statement in this thread by anyone that AP tests are "routinely" passed by bright ninth graders, but rather several statements that ninth graders even taking the tests is quite unusual. The national AP report of AP grade distributions by (school) grade level </p>
<p>reports the actual numbers for a recent year.</p>
<p>Our district does not normally allow frosh or sophs to take AP courses. They may however petition the department to take them if they are determined to be academically prepared to take the class and if there is room in the class section. This happens very rarely however and I did not know of any frosh or sophs taking AP's while my son was attending.</p>
<p>Given the college admissions/scholarship success of district students the policy does not seem to be detrimental at all.</p>
<p>Many thanks to afan, who posted in the Harvard Forum a link to the 2007 AP National Report (which is based on tests taken in 2006), </p>
<p>showing that AP tests taken in ninth grade are quite rare, although a fair percentage of all students who take the AP human geography test take it with a ninth grade grade designation.</p>
<p>Our HS has added many AP classes over the last 10 years and has changed the requirements along the way. When D1 took AP science classes you had to have aced the Pre-AP class the year before. Now there is a program for gifted students interested in health careers to take AP Bio as 9th graders. Those kids were in a different class from the "regular" AP Bio sudents (Jrs and Srs). I'd be interested to see how the scores came in. Most of the older kids got 5's.
D2 took AP Physics as a Jr without any physics background... did ok (3) but nothing to brag about since the math classes weren't ahead of the science skills...
On the other hand; the history classes mostly require critical reading skills and good writing. D2 took APUSH as a 10th grader - the first year the school allowed this..... teacher (a gem, and an AP English teacher) said that at the AP summer school she took all the teachers said the hard part was teaching the kids to read and write well. Since she had that part down pat, she wasn' afraid. A huge percentage got 4's and 5's. D2 gets 6 credits at college for her 10th grade history class!</p>