<p>Agree with ucbalumnus that the AP program is considered the standard of excellence at most schools. It’s nice to think that schools might design equivalent or better classes, but I doubt that happens at most schools. </p>
<p>In our school, we used to have the old CS AB class. When the college board discontinued administering that test, in favor of the watered down CS A test, our school immediately dropped CS AB and now offers only CS A. The teacher is still there. The quality of the students hasn’t changed–my daughter would have liked to enroll in AB. But the school isn’t offering that opportunity any more. All they need for their stats and status is to teach students to succeed on CS A. Why do more, there isn’t an AP test for it.</p>