<p>carolyn & calmom, I agree with both of you on the gatekeeping for AP classes. In fact, I used to fight with the school district for letting just about anybody in the honors class. That said, I do think even some good students sometimes make mistake as far as grade is concern.
In my d hs, students have to have A in non-honors class and B in honors class in world history before they are allowed to take the dbq test. If they pass this test, they will be allowed to take APUSH the following year.</p>
<p>Yes, there should be specific requirements to enroll in both AP and honors classes. With all the discussion about "AP lite" classes I am surprised there is even any discussion about this.</p>
<p>In our district, 9th grade honors classes are offered by recommendation of middle school faculty. After that, honors and AP classes are restricted to those who earn a B+ in honors/AP coursework or an A in regular coursework in the prerequisite subject. This allows the courses to be taught at an appropriate level so that the students earn their +5 or +10 weighted gpa points.</p>
<p>While our district offers 21 AP courses, our HS offers one class section for most and two class sections for the most popular like USHistory, Psych and English Lit&Comp. To allow open enrollment might cause some "worthy" students to be closed out of an AP class they desire to take and that would not be fair.</p>
<p>But frankly, the students know that they have to work very hard in both honors and AP sections so there is not much desire to tackle these sections by the average student.</p>
<p>Here's another thread about this that may be helpful.<br>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=44688%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=44688</a></p>
<p>this is about APs and honors classes as well...interesting stuff</p>