I think many people on CC are blinded by their own experiences at very high preforming high schools that offer quality classes without the AP branding. But it’s important to realize these schools are not representative. For most schools, the AP program has been an incentive to offer more advanced and more rigorous courses. It’s a bit frustrating when people say things like, AP Human Geography is a useless class because it doesn’t offer college credit. Maybe this is true at a place like Exeter or Harker. But at most schools, the alternative to a class like AP Human Geography is a social studies course based almost completely on memorization, with no analysis and no writing apart from fill in the blanks. So in that sense, AP Human Geography is great.