The first high school I attended in the early 70’s had none. I’d never heard of them even though it was a fairly large high school for our state. On the other hand, there was a college just down the street, so if you wanted to take a course that was ‘just like college’ you could go down the street and it actually WAS college. Even today, this school offers just 5 or 6 AP courses, and they are the basics - APUSH, Lit, Lang -because that college is just down the street. Most students who want to take calc or an advanced science class just go to the college and take it.
The school I transferred to was one of the biggest and highest ranked in the country. It probably offered 10 or more AP’s back then, and now probably offers all of them. It has a choice of 5-6 foreign languages and I’m sure the AP course for each is offered, all the science and math, all the social sciences. I can’t think of one that isn’t offered, and if it isn’t they would arrange for that student to take it at another school in the district. There is also dual enrollment at several community colleges. This is a big school still, 3500 students, in a big district that has the money to support all these classes. It’s in a high income area, so the parents expect the top educational experience (because there are plenty of private schools that will provide it).
My own kids only took a few AP classes, and only if the class wasn’t offered as an honors class. One took AP environmental only because there wasn’t another science class of interest to her, not because she needed a bigger challenge. The other took AP Spanish because that’s the level, not because she needed a challenge in Spanish.
what I’ve seen a few schools and even districts doing is requiring all students to take AP courses, but they are choosing to teach the ones generally considered less rigorous.
This can be a bad decision for everybody!
Students who need a remedial or regular course are overwhelmed and students who wanted to take a Euro History instead of Human Geography, are sol.
It’s bad enough when a school does it but the push for APs seemed to coincide with magazine rankings of high schools using #'s of AP tests, NOT the scores to determine the top schools.
Seriously, is this a real question from a “resident” of the Windy City?
My son’s GF teaches in a Chicago Public high school, where the most of the Frosh are struggling with (remedial) middle school math. The idea of taking AP Math is a non-starter, if they don’t have the basics of Alg I coming in
That is not necessarily true. For starters, one needs to differentiate the offering of the classes from the actual exam taking and earning the credits. Then, one needs to look at two additional elements: the real value of those HIGH SCHOOL courses in a bona fide college education and the negative impact the AP program can have on an entire school as it brings discrimination academically and mostly on a SES basis. Many schools have jumped on the AP/IB bandwagon for ulterior motives as it allows to pay certain teachers more and offer them a better teaching environment through putting students to a perverse sifting mechanism. Who is not to like teaching the nicest, most polite, better educated, more cuddled students and earn a bonus on the way?
Yet, this discriminatory system based on a loose system of preferences that goes beyond strict academics also hurt the core of what a school should be, and that is teaching everyone with a similar attention and dedication. In addition to the “forced” dropout that impacts so many in the 9th grade, this “school within a school” only brings a further deterioration to the school and one that is not balanced by the “mediocre” benefits of the AP in terms of finances.
While I fully understand that the AP is marketed as a cost savings, it also departs from its original intent: being an Advanced Placement system that does NOT come as a lowering of the full value of a college education. It should NOT be used as a CREDIT that lowers the graduation requirements but as a source of higher placement only.
In the end, there is indeed shortchanging associated with the AP, but it works just in an opposite way than quoted above. Most kids are indeed shortchanged from receiving an adequate education in high school and robbed from a bona fide education at the college level by accepting a mile wide/inch deep glorified high school class.
A great program in its original shape that has been entirely distorted by the lethal combination of selfish high schools officials and the marketing genius of the “new” TCB. What we need is to have high school being GOOD high schools and stop pretending they can deliver college courses when they hardly can educate our students, and allow colleges to pick up the pace without having to waste expensive resources on providing mostly remedial material to shore up the immense holes left by the high schools.
Single word answer- money. btw- this answers the “can’t” question, not the “don’t” one.
Many great posts that already stated that and other good reasons. Time for you to learn how the world works outside of your childhood bubble. Expect many more shocking revelations as you engage in a wider world.
A big part of it is the fact that in order to teach an AP, the teacher has to take the course over the summer. And has to have the degree. Plus, depending on the school, prerequisites are required. It’s just different from school to school. I know that my school-which is nationally ranked as well as named one of the hardest schools in the country-has a policy that doesn’t require prerequisites, and has many AP versions of regular classes, which are taken by the majority of students (for example, the APUSH course has about 4 classes (just for juniors mind you) where the regular one has one small class. So some schools might deem an AP program not worth it-if it’s not a popular class.