<p>At my school and every other public highschool in Fairfield County, they only allow the top 10% of students to take any AP classes. You also need a teacher recomendation for it too. The only reason they do this is so they can keep their number of 5's on the exams high. Are public highschools allowed to deny that many people the right to take an AP class?</p>
<p>I really don't think they are. It seems unfair. But in most schools only the top 10 percent take AP's anyway. There might be a few lower than that, but it's not major.</p>
<p>If there is limited space.. then they should be able to, but if they have the resources and space to create AP classes, then you should go argue.</p>
<p>I live in Fairfield, CT and this is definately not the case. The public schools have shifted to an almost open enrollment policy.</p>
<p>I don't know if they are allowed. I do know that in my son's district you need to take honors, if they have one in the subject, first, and then do well to move into an AP. If they don't have honors, you can get into the AP, by teacher approval. Interestingly, there is nothing in writing about these rules. They are orally stated to the students. Most important seems to be teacher approval. It is definitely somewhat subjective, and can become unfair.</p>
<p>Actually, I think schools should put the policy to writing, and should also disclose their policy to colleges by outlining their policy in their school profile.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about public school, but my private school requires students to have certain grade points (either A- or B+, depending on the class), high stadardized test scores (these aren't told to us), and recommendation from the department to get into any honors or AP class.</p>
<p>My prep school has certain requirements as well if you want to get into an AP or Honors course. You need lets say a B+/A in a regular class and a B/B+ in Honors/AP to get into the AP course...and such for honors. The reason why they do this is because they don't want kids who slack off or can't handle the workload joining honors/AP classes. But only allowing top 10% to join sounds ridiculous.</p>
<p>What school do you go to in Fairfield? In Norwalk and Darien and a couple others I forgot your pretty much lucky to even be in an AP class.</p>
<p>Well I don't live in Fairfield County I live in NY...Fordham Prep if you've heard of it.</p>
<p>I live in Fairfield County..... anyone can take AP classes in my school. I go to Greenwich High... soo yea. I am actually strongly agaisnt the idea of limitting the number of students that can take ap classes. If a student wants to excel in specific areas of which classes he takes, then why restrict him from doing so.</p>
<p>I'm also from Fairfield County (Newtown) and there is an application process to get into most AP classes... then you need to be given the "okay" by the department chair. A lot of people get in (no <10% rule), and even if you don't, you can just fill out an override form and get in anyway.</p>
<p>Newtown? Whats that?</p>
<p>My town... and school is Newtown High School.</p>
<p>I doubt that schools are allowed to do that.</p>
<p>
Well, in my class of 475 (public), 67% of seniors are taking at least one AP class...so it kind of is a big deal.</p>
<p>But anyway, I think they are allowed to impose restrictions if they want...and even if they aren't, what are you going to do? Call the school board or something. Have any lawyer friends or neighbors? Ask them if they'd just take a look if you are that serious about it.</p>
<p>Well when subject selection comes around in January I'm gonna try and get a few AP's and if they don't let me I'll go to the department chair people and if they wont it's superintendent and if he doesn't, I'll give college board a call but hopefully it wont get to that. </p>
<p>I just think its kind of unfair because when I apply to a college I don't want them to think I take easy classes cause I'm a slacker or anything.</p>
<p>bumpyty bump bump</p>
<p>that is not fair, they are artificially restricting the number of people. i would challenge them through the school board, pta etc. hey, that would look good on your app too! lol</p>
<p>Sue. Hell yes, I would love to get in on this. Where do you live?</p>
<p>live- If they have the resources there is no reason to keep him out of the class unless he's failing. Also: if grades are weighted, and APs are weighted more than honors classes, then you're only making it HARDER for those stragglers to catch up to the top 10%.</p>
<p>Not to mention it robs the student of the opportunity to save hundreds of dollars on college courses. I mean, if he's failing the class, by all means boot him out but sometimes kids just really click to a certain class.</p>