Getting AP courses at school. Has anyone been successful?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I go to a high school in Iowa with about 700 students.
Unfortunately, we don't have any in-school AP's.</p>

<p>I'm a sophomore, and I'm taking my second AP online this year - AP US History. (AP US Gov last year.)</p>

<p>It would be great if we could have one at school.
Should I try to get a couple?
Does anyone know what has to be done?</p>

<p>Many are skeptical because the district does pay for duel enrollment. Also, some question whether or not there are enough students willing to take the course.</p>

<p>Thanks,
an Iowan.</p>

2

<p>You should probably ask your counselor or principal about the possibility of bringing an AP course or two to your school. The lack of AP courses at your school could be due to an inability or unwillingness to pay.</p>

3

<p>Teachers have to get certified to teach, so its not as simple as creating a petition.</p>

4

<p>A friend and I got AP Physics C!</p>

<p>It couldn’t hurt to try.</p>

5

<p>We got AP Music Theory last year.</p>

<p>You need to find out what is required.
A) How many students does your district require to make a class?
B) How many of your fellow students are willing to take that class? I’m betting you could get enough to make an AP US or an AP English class or something.
C) Is there a teacher that can teach it?</p>

<p>But yeah. My school got AP Music Theory last year. There were 7 of us. =) My band teacher taught it and we had a 100% pass rate. I don’t actually think that there is a requirement for student numbers to make a class at my school though. I think the standard AP’s such as English, Spanish, French, sciences, etc. The ones they offer every year only require one student. There’s two kids in AP Latin this year, four in AP Chem last year. And apparently, there was only one AP French student one year. Oh, and there’s five in my AP French class. So yeah…</p>

6

<p>Eh, yeah…it’s not like starting a club where all you really need is permission, maybe a sponsoring teacher, and members. You need to be certified to be an AP teacher, and it could be a reason why they don’t offer AP courses.</p>

7

<p>Certified?</p>

<p>Don’t teachers just have to audit a course? <a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;

<p>I go to a private school and almost none of our teachers are even certified to teach. (They all have college degrees- doctorates in some cases, they just don’t meet public school credentials.)</p>

<p>Like I said, my band teacher chose to teach AP Music Theory last year. I’m pretty sure all he had to do was audit the course.</p>

<p>I haven’t been able to find anything on the collegeboard website that says anything other than auditing a course…</p>

<p>I definitely could be wrong/mis-informed, but that’s all I’ve found. Maybe it’s a district requirement to be ‘certified’?</p>

<p>EDIT: I just found this on the College Board website. “There are no rigidly defined selection criteria for who can serve as an AP teacher. The College Board recommends that AP teachers have undertaken some form of professional development prior to teaching AP for the first time.” <a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/assessment/ap/plan/training[/url]”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/assessment/ap/plan/training&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So it must be a district thing.</p>

<p>AND You might want to look at this to help you talk to your counselors/principals about it. <a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/assessment/ap/cultivating[/url]”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/assessment/ap/cultivating&lt;/a&gt; It’s specifically for small rural schools.</p>