I am a Chicago resident, and I’ve witnessed those selective public high schools rack up 17 to 30 AP courses, but there are just some schools that only have 5-10 of them. Of course there are also some schools that have none, which sometimes keeps surprising me. My school, which is De La Salle Institute, has only seven. So why exactly do schools offer a limited range of these college-level classes, and other schools do? Is it a correlation between selective and less selective OR non-selective high schools? Is it because those good schools that have great reputation are able to produce a good intramural community hence beget more challenging classes? I am starting to think less selective schools do not have the ability to find teachers who can teach at an excelling pace or teachers who would want teach at their schools. It could be a couple of reasons for my second explanation: Either they want to find good schools or there are some who do not have the authorization from CollegeBoard to administer AP classes. Am I right on that? An elite school always needs diverse teachers who have previously received the CollegeBoard certificate to direct diverse courses, whereas a not-so-elite school may not find those resources?
IMO, there is no correlation/causation between elite/non-elite schools and AP course offerings. Many elite schools have curtailed or eliminated AP offerings because:
• they do not want to open themselves up to the College Board course audit
• they do not want to teach to the test
• they believe that they can design a curriculum better than the College Board, etc.
@skieurope : That’s true, but do those points not refer more often than not to private schools rather than public schools? I just get the feeling that there’s a more complicated answer to this question, especially when it comes down to differences in the range of AP course offerings between public schools.
Well, when you look specifically at public schools, budgetary constraints probably play a part.
AP is just one of many advanced programs. There’s IB, A-levels (and other international ones im not as familiar with), dual enrollment, dual credit, etc. Schools can choose what curriculum they want to provide. My high school was a STEM magnet school and, while we offered a lot of APs, our advanced courses included differential equations, complex analysis, DNA analysis, organic chemistry, etc. None of these classes are APs, but are far more difficult and above AP classes (considered post-AP). AP is not a measure of how good a school. You have to look at what advanced or college-level options they offer.
@skieurope : That’s what I was thinking as well. I’m guessing if a study was on the subject was done, it would show that public high schools in better socioeconomic areas have larger ranges of AP course offerings. This would probably be reinforced by student demand for such courses, which would likely be more in such areas. Thankfully, most colleges tend to evaluate applicants in terms of their environment, so it’s probably not a major issue in terms of admissions.
Each HS has a school profile which gives details about a school including the number of AP courses offered. This profile is attached to the transcript sent to colleges. A student will not be penalized for not taking classes which his or her school doesn’t offer.
Any my local HS which is part of a very well regarded school distinct dropped all APs a number of years ago in favor of more in-depth courses designed by the teachers in the HS (a number of students chose to take the AP test but it is not required and the courses do not always cover all of the material so a degree of self-study is needed).
With the increasing cost of secondary education though, it certainly is helpful for my son to be able to take many APs with instruction toward achieving a high score on the AP exam. I feel he has been both learning the subject matter (thereby gaining preparation for college courses) and gaining the college credits (varying credits depending on the credit each college awards).
My administrators hate teaching to the test and feel as though AP classes force that. And my school is very small. <200 students.
Agree with first response.
For instance, while a local large comprehensive does offer AP courses, for instance the science dept designed lab classes to be taken in 10th grade that they felt were superior to AP biology.
Our local flagship university agrees, as they will give students college credit for the high school class- without taking the AP test.
It is often correlated with size for public High Schools. If you don’t have enough students to fill up those 30 different AP courses than you won’t offer that many. Just like larger high schools can offer more languages but smaller ones may just offer Spanish.
More common sense? Or is it more courage to reject an educational boondoggle. Perhaps you should be happy to have fewer and better chosen AP. And, it could be worse, you could have to deal with the ■■■■■■■ cousin imported from Europe.
- Money (Especially if a functional lab and supplies are needed; I saw one DC private school with a 'virtual lab' for dissections etc)
- School size (Enough kids to fill the class? Some schools won't run a class with fewer than 8 kids, for instance)
- Student preparedness/interest/parent demand (Which is really money, in a different outfit)
- Equivalent options (Is it easier to send the kids 2 blocks over for a DE class?)
The teachers have to be trained to teach the AP course. For some schools that are already maxed out on teaching courses, this may mean hiring more teachers, which not every school has the resources to do. For certain courses, there is no guarantee that students would take if offered. For example, the Computer Science AP course was discontinued due to low interest and for other schools, many students aren’t able to reach the AP level (ex: math) by the time their senior year rolls around. Other schools offer IB and dual enrollment courses. Since colleges evaluate students in context, sometimes it isn’t as valuable for schools to add AP courses and they decide to use the funding for other things (ex: underperforming students)
For AP classes it takes qualified teachers, excelling students and money. AP classes don’t mean much if they aren’t taught well, students don’t pass the exams to obtain credit and/or have the money for testing.
Many schools do offer dual credit but then your grades count as college credit and if you don’t do well then your college GPA is damaged before you get started. AP credits can save a lot of money when applied to a college degree.
Schools who don’t provide AP classes on the basis of “we’re better than that and can do it better” are shortchanging their kids if the kids are capable of AP. College costs way too much these days–those AP credits can be worth a few thousand dollars in the long run to an individual.
For non-elite high schools (i.e. the vast majority of them), it is usually due to budgetary and demand constraints. Some choose an alternative way of offering advanced courses (e.g. dual enrollment with a local college).
For a relatively tiny number of elite high schools, some believe that they can design courses and curricula that are better than the AP versions.
As a practical matter, students at non-elite high schools should mostly be concerned with the presence and quality of AP courses in “core” subjects (e.g. English, math, etc.), rather than seeing a large number of peripheral subject AP courses offered (e.g. environmental science, psychology, etc.). “Quality” means, at the very least, students who do well in the AP courses should also do well on the AP tests (A students getting 1 scores does not say much good about the course).
ucbalamnus brings up a great point. I was always surprised by students who posted that they are taking 10 or 11 APs but they get 2s or 3s on them. I always wondered if that meant their curriculum was up to par. Just having the name “AP” doesn’t necessarily imply the same rigor and standards at every school
All of these answers are very helpful. Thank you all!
Some schools don’t offer tons of APs for philosophical reasons:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/west/2012/06/23/advanced-placement-participation-varies-widely-between-high-schools-tough-tests-gain-popularity/JMr3i9F1cLzQgvnpjnqLIM/story.html
In reality, you don’t need 10+ AP scores. Most of the AP credits are for introductory courses that can only be counted for pre-requisites or electives. Having too many AP credits may lead to higher tuition rate without further accelerating graduation.