<p>College Board to Eliminate 4 Unpopular Advanced Placement Courses
The College Board plans to cut four unpopular Advanced Placement courses after the 2008-9 academic year, according to The Washington Post.</p>
<p>College Board leaders announced in an e-mail message to high-school teachers on Thursday that the AP program would eliminate its Italian, Latin literature, French literature, and computer science AB courses, the Post reported. All of the courses have low enrollment. The Italian course, for example, is serving only 1,642 students nationwide.</p>
<p>Board leaders told the Post that they had no plans to cut other courses in the AP program</p>
<p>Sorry to see Computer Science AB go. My son took that course and got a great deal out of it. I think it played an important role in his decision to major in computer science in college.</p>
<p>No Latin Lit!!! Those monsters! Well, geez, if it's unpopular, then we shouldn't do it. Hey, how about AP Britney Spears? That would be popular!</p>
<p>Wow, cutting French lit is going to make things quite interesting at our high school. Maybe a simultaneously cut of cr*ppy French lit teachers. :)</p>
<p>I don't understand why they would cut Italian. French Lit, Latin Lit, fine, if there is already a French Lang and a Latin Lang, but why doesn't Italian get equal status? Also, AP Computer Science AB was actually useful, and really hard. When I read this I was expecting to see Human Geography or Environmental Science or some typically considered "soft" AP. But I guess not.</p>
<p>I think my son was planning on AP French Lit. He'll take AP French Language next year as a junior. I don't think I'll tell him until he gets back from his year abroad.</p>
<p>Too bad about French Lit. D took it and got a 5 on it. She had already taken AP French 5 and wanted to continue. She is double majoring in English and French.</p>
<p>Most people need to get over it, and just deal with what they've! This certainly won't just hurt you severely, if you are REALLY interested in any of these subjects, then exclusion of the AP Exams shouldn't certainly restrict you to anything...provided you are motivated for that..and ready to take the greater challenge of CLEP (hehe...not sure of that) :p</p>
<p>Apparently, they're most likely the minority APs (based on the number of people taking it) and CB got their own self interests too (if u haven't already noticed that after seeing they take $45ish for SAT I)</p>
<p>Mathson did Latin (Virgil) is that the one they are cutting or is it the other one? And he did Comp Sci AB. Does that mean they are still doing Comp Sci A?</p>
<p>I posted this link last night, but it was in the wee hours and didn't get bumped back up. </p>
<p>The word DS's CS teachers have is that they are going to pump up the difficulty of CS A once they cancel AB. I think DS is going to be busy this summer teaching Java to students who want to self-study for the last AB exam, but who won't be able to get into the course!</p>
<p>I can;t tell you how upset DS is about this. The AB exam is the <em>baseline</em> level of knowledge for students who want to compete in the US Computer Science Olympiad. This is very near and dear to his heart.</p>
<p>Innovative, if the exams are cut, it's very likely that the courses will be eliminated at the high schools which currently offer them, too. </p>
<p>mathmom, it's Latin Lit that's being cut; Virgil will still be offered. </p>
<p>AP Comp Sci is one of four AP courses available in the high school program my son is in that satisfies a certain requirement for that program. And I'd just gotten a response this morning from someone at the state ed department to a question I had about the online AP Latin course. Guess that's going to go away now. Oh, well; guess the kid really will be switching to Russian!</p>
<p>From the Washington Post article, I surmise that of the 4, AP Computer Science AB is the most popular. I'd be surprised if they couldn't get support from Google or Microsoft to keep AP Computer Science AB alive. It just seems like a no brainer. A lot of schools don't give any credit for just AP Computer Science A.</p>
<p>The one that disturbs me most is Italian; at least the other three subjects being cut have partner exams in their respective subjects, so there is at least <em>some</em> way remaining to promote advanced study of each. Also, Italian is a relatively fledgling addition to the AP pantheon. I think it should be given more of a chance than 3 years to gain a foothold before being put on the chopping block.</p>
<p>ClassicRockerDad,
I would expect that there will be folks who come to bat for CS AB. The competitiveness argument is compelling. This class is a staple at my S's schools.</p>