<p>Sorry don’t know how to do the blue box quote thing but Kayact asked: I wonder why so many high schools are letting students that are not ready to take college level courses take AP classes.</p>
<p>Answer:Jay Matthews … first as noted above he has written many articles about the benefits of AP exams. Second, Mr Matthews writes articles and books ranking high schools and one of his main criteria is how many students take AP exams. It is a national ranking. The number of AP exams has increased exponentially since he began publishing these rankings. He doesn’t care how well students do on the AP exams. He actually does not like it if a school limits the number of students eligible to take AP exams or asks students to take a qualifying exam to show they are ready for AP course level work or if the school insists the students take the AP exam at the end of the year. At my children’s school 98% of students taking AP’s score 3 or higher on AP exams, 90% of the students score 5s. Frequently students score a 5 on the AP exam and get a grade of B. The teachers have much higher expectations for learning than the AP exam. Yet, this school does not rank in the top 100 nationally according to Mr. Matthews because the school limits access to AP classess to those students who exhibit readiness to take an AP curriculum. Ironically, my nephew’s school, in a different state, is ranked by Mr Matthews in the top 20 nationally and yet my nephew once told me “he has never met anyone who scored a 3 on the AP exams let alone a 5.” (Well I didn’t have the heart to tell him my children’s scores when he made this comment to me and i know which family by far got the better public education.) I won’t argue with Mr Matthews that offering an AP class (hopefully) raises the achievement bar for every student so exposed but increasing access to AP’s also leads to gaming his ratings game.</p>