At D20’s school, as long as the AP test is attempted, the student is exempt from taking the final exam.
To receive weighted credit, the AP exam must be attempted.
I’m not sure if it’s the state or the district paying for the exam, but AP tests are free to all test-takers in the public school regardless of income. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of lower-income students taking and passing the exams since the policy was implemented.
Our school does not have a “generous budget” nor does it limit who can take AP classes. The AP participation rate is 60-something percent and the pass rate is in the 70s. (For reference, our free/reduced lunch percentage is also in the high 60s/low70s.) But the school does do anything within its power to reach and encourage students from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
My kids’ Ohio HS only did this the final year my youngest was there. Prior to that there was no waiver at all or just a reduction of about 20%. This must vary by state/high school.
Our HS also made the AP exams optional, though most students took them, my D also knew where she was going to college at AP test registration time and it wouldn’t take any AP credits either, so she didn’t take the senior year exams.
Like any class, all of her AP classes had exams (or papers, projects etc) that her class grade was based on.
AP exam scores come back long after school is done in our area, so I’m not sure how a HS class can base the grade on a test that returns results long after graduation (I understand people are saying the grade is affecting simply by paying for and sitting for the exam, regardless of how one does).
I think it’s really unfair of the public school districts to charge for the AP exam and if the parents can’t/won’t pay for it to then either not allow the kid to take the AP class at all or to remove the weighting of an AP course from the kid’s transcript. I fully buy-into the argument that some families don’t qualify for the fee waiver but still can’t afford to pay this fee. And we all know the importance of class ranking to some colleges (and what about auto-admit states for top 10 percent of the class, like in Texas?). If the district commits to giving an AP class, they should commit all the way. OP, I think you really would be doing a big service to the kids who come after your son to bring this up to the district.
This is neither here nor there for this discussion, other than to point out how seriously schools look at the AP results. At my D’s school a bunch of seniors who committed to colleges that didn’t have any credit for the AP decided that it would be really funny to intentionally bomb the tests. The administration didn’t realize it was a prank and reassigned the teacher, who was a great teacher but new to the school so there was no track record. This year’s kids stepped forward and let the administration know, because they were really upset when Sept rolled around and they had a different teacher, but it was too late for this year. I’m sure the kids who pulled the prank wish they knew beforehand the importance of their test results.
Another segue, the school district next to us did away with all finals and mid-terms, saying that all these assessments take away too much time from teaching. So the only opportunity for a big assessment is the AP. When I’ve argued that removing the assessments in HS is a terrible idea and will hurt the kids when they get to college, I’ve been told this is the wave of the future. (?). If this is the case, it makes access to a free AP that much more important.
That the student signed up for the class and committed to the exam beforehand, that the school or the district needs the information from the exams, that the classes helped with admission to a top college and that the OP can afford to pay - all of that doesn’t mean that the OP doesn’t get to resent that they are forced to fork over several hundreds to a private entity to ensure son can complete his high school education at a public school.
Asking all lawyers here - is the public school still offering a free and appropriate education if the most rigourous classes offered by the school don’t count unless you pay up? It’s a huge hurdle for an otherwise highly capable low income student if they have to commit to paying hundreds of dollars without knowing whether they qualify for the reduction in fees or if they can afford even the reduced fees. If ithe exam is a required part of the public school class and necessary for credit, shouldn’t it be offered for free, and it’s the public school administrations job to figure out how to do so, whether they use tax money to pay for the services of a private entity or offer an equivalency exam - to everyone. It shouldn’t be the job of students or their families to worry about any of that.
Totally agree btw that it makes sense to have a centralised exam be part and parcel of a standardised college prep curriculum, to make sure the teaching and learning is really up to the given standard wherever it’s offered and can thus be used to make admission to higher ed More fair and transparent. A lot of European and Asian school systems work like that, and it’s associated with higher achievement across the board in international surveys (if you care about that).
In a centralised system like that, it may happen that in the case of a significant discrepancy between the high school grades given throughout the year and the grades the students achieved in the centralised exam, the department of education may call in all graded coursework and tests from the class to make sure students weren’t subjected to unreasonable demands or conversely graded too leniently, to ensure fairness across the system. Training teachers beforehand is good, but giving them regular feedback is better.
OP, if you feel up to it, you and your son could go to bat for the low income students in your school - pointing out just because you can pay up easily, not everyone can and how unfair that is.
My son took 6 AP tests senior year despite their being not at all required by the high school and not at all counted for credit or placement by his college. (California, so no pay to play. Separate finals taken after the AP tests, and taking the AP test has no effect on the grade.) There are automatic fee waivers for students with free/reduced lunch.
He was admitted RD to Caltech, so we had already signed him up for the tests by the time he was accepted. His high school was willing to refund all but about $15/test to students who cancelled.
But, the word from Caltech was that not taking and sending the scores for tests you had listed as “planned” on your application would take unfair advantage of other applicants who hadn’t listed those tests. This they said would be in violation of Caltech’s honor code, which states that “No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.” (Applicants are considered “protofrosh” and so loosely are “members of the community.”)
He was in agreement with this reasoning, and took the 5 tests he had listed on the application plus another (Microecon) that he’d learned the content for as a member of an Econ competition team. (He felt it would help the stats for the team’s coach.)
He took both Physics C tests despite the school not offering those classes, and felt the few days he spent studying for those tests helped him on the placement tests Caltech students take during the summer.
I’m not a lawyer, but I was a school board member. This is the exact reason that required payment for AP tests is not permitted in California. The relevant law in AB 1575, which the governor signed in September 2012. Court cases date from at least 2010. AP tests are not generally mentioned in articles about AB 1575, but requiring such tests for course credit would be a violation.
Enrolling in an AP class does not require taking the test. AP test score can move your grade up but not down. Free/Reduced lunch gets fee waiver. 60 percent of our large (3000) high school is on free/reduced lunch.
At my kids’ school, if you take an AP class, you are required to take the AP exam in May. Also, taking the AP exam counts as the final exam for the class. And your score on the AP exam determines 60% of your grade in the class for the year. The school does pay for the AP exam test fee for all of those students. But if the student transfers out of the school prior to graduation, the parents are on the hook to reimburse the school for all of the AP exam fees for the tests that the student took during his/her time there.
Usually for the week prior to the start of AP exams, there’s a week of review, in which no new homework is assigned and the classes are devoted to review & test prep.
OP: Your situation sounds pretty frustrating! Congrats on your son’s acceptance to Williams! Best of luck to him in the fall!
I am surprised by the number of responses that side with the school district. We have a similar situation in our school district. You must pay for and take the AP exam, or the AP designation is dropped from your transcript.
If a school offers something as part of the regular curriculum - such as an AP class - it should not impose a fee for the class. Additionally, the AP exam result is not included in the student’s final grade. A student who does not take the AP exam, but has completed all of the the class assignments, as well as the class tests and final, no longer has an AP class on their transcript, despite completing the same work as a student who pays for and sits for the exam (and could even leave it blank).
There are very few students in our district who qualify for a fee waiver. While most families can afford the cost, not all are wealthy. Hundreds of dollars for tests that cannot be used for credit, or for tests that a kid feels unprepared to take, are a waste. My middle kid took 10 exams, so we spent about $900. That money could have gone toward her travel sport, a family weekend getaway, or something else. The policy also discouraged her from taking a class she wanted to take senior year. She was already taking five AP classes, and this other class would mean six AP exams at the end of senior year, so she took something else.
In our district, the origin of such policies is clear - it is about rankings and ratings. Look at the US News & World Report system of ranking high schools. The percentage of students who take an AP exam and percentage who pass are used in the rankings. By implementing the AP policy in our district, the percentage of students who take AP exams has increased. Predictably, the average AP score has dropped, but the vast majority in our HS can score a 3 or better, and that is all that is needed for that coveted ranking. (When the policy was enacted, the average AP score dropped from 4.16 to 3.78.)
S took 16 APs and D took 17. That was a lot of fees to us, most of which ended up being practically useless to us.
Our HS school took the position that they would pay for the AP text fees if all of the following were met -
the student signed up before the early registration deadline, and
the course was physically taught at their building (no to online class or independent study)
the student/family qualified for free lunch
the exam was held in their building (occasionally, if <5 students were enrolled, the College Board would hold the test in a neighboring town). No transportation was made available.
We did not qualify for free tests (barely).
I was in OP’s situation and I understand the frustration of the unfairness, as several schools in our state automatically pay all the test fees. At an awards night, I casually mentioned this issue to our Principal because I thought it was not fair. He told me they really wanted to encourage AP exams because so many of our students end up at Flagship State and this process allows more of them to graduate on time, several even early, resulting in significant tuition savings down the road. They had come up with their policy years before, and it had been run by the state Dept of Education without objection, before it was implemented. He noted that they had run the numbers and if the school was going to pay the AP exams fees for everyone, it would have meant the equivalent loss of about 2.5 teachers. Our town has had school budgets voted down for less than a one teacher salary increase.
He also added that they have, in the past, paid the test fees if the families were “close” to the requirements because they knew it would be cheaper than the cost of defending/litigating against a complaint. I asked where that would show up in the annual budget information, and it is included under “textbooks/materials/fees”.
What’s crazy about our school’s AP classes is that some do require the student to take the AP test (AP Comp Sci, Calc BC), while others are test-optional (AP Psych, AP Physics, etc.). This is left to the head of each department - the rules are listed well in advance. S and D both found that the courses they had taken Senior year all required them, but they would probably have wanted to take them anyway.
Now that my pups are long done, I don’t wish to see my local property taxes increased for this.
Often the AP/IB courses are part of a special, elective curriculum. There is a US history course, by your student wants to take APUSH. There are special rules about the AP class, and the pay-for-exam is one of them. Some schools offer dual enrollment and the student has to pay for the transportation or books or extra lab supplies needed. It’s not required to take those AP or dual enrollment classes, or orchestra or drama or sports.
California schools can’t require anything that costs the schools extra, but they sure do offer classes and sport that require an extra fee, like AP courses, sports, music, theater. Lots of extra fees. You can certainly get out of a CA high school without paying an extra dime, but it will not be the same education as someone who takes AP classes and plays the flute and runs track will get.
Sorry prior posters, but there is no way I would support any public school spending an extra 1k to 2k on your individual student for test fees. Can you imagine the tax increases? That is a lot of money to spend on a single student for the public to pay. Perhaps dual enrollment at the local community college would be cheaper. Or the school can just drop the AP offerings all together.
The school doesn’t need to pay for the AP exam or drop AP offerings - they just need to remove the requirement that you must pay for and sit for the exam. I forgot to add that our district made us pay for the exams in October - months in advance of when AP exam payment is due - and the check was cashed in October. No one could tell me where the $90,000 was sitting for those several months (and I asked).
Placement is still a significant advantage and a great reason to take the AP exams. That means your student will be able to take more interesting higher level classes, double major, or do more research.
Crankymom has a really good point about the time value of money–we had the same situation of paying in October or so, when the exams were not until May. Who owns the “float”? Probably CB will argue that they need the money up front to cover the costs of developing the exam. I don’t think the school district keeps it.
At the time, I didn’t think too much about the cost of the AP exams–which provided little benefit in credit or placement at college (similarly to the Williams case). However, after 4 years’ worth of tuition, retrospectively it might have been nice not to have to pay for the AP exams. $600+ is still a lot of money, for many families who do not qualify for reduced-price lunches.
With regard to the costs, generally speaking, public schools are responsible for the cost of providing appropriate instruction to each student. If paying for the AP exam is required in order for a student to take an AP course that is appropriate to him/her, then the school should cover the costs. If the district cannot afford to pay the exam fees, they ought to make the AP exam itself optional, and keep the AP designation for the class.
This doesn’t speak to the OP’s particular situation, which I would characterize as “just stuck, nice that your son doesn’t object to taking the exams.” But maybe something could be done for students in the future. Does the school board set the payment policy? Is there a lawyer among the parents, who could explain the legal requirements for public schools.
The phrase “free and appropriate education” comes from the federal IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities in Education) law, and applies to students who have been determined to be in need of special education services due to a disability.
“Special education” means services geared to providing instruction that meets or attempt to meet the regular, standard curriclum to students who cannot function in the regular classroom or meet those standards without extra support or services.
“Appropriate” does not mean “best” – it really means basic or standard. So is a “free and appropriate” education in high school would be services geared to allowing the student to meet basic high school graduation requirements.
So no - no, FAPE would not apply to AP classes. AP’s are something extra that goes above and beyond the basic curriculum --so that’s not within the scope of the legal definition of “appropriate.” The Free part could apply to 504 accommodations- for example, if a student with a disability qualifies for accommodations on a test, they would not be charged extra for those accommodations.
I think there are some state laws that address appropriate public education for strong students, apart from the federal IDEA? At least, that was what I was told about our state.
@Ynotgo – AB 1575 does not exempt students from paying AP test fees – it simply means that that the AP exam cannot be required of all students. So if the OP lived in California, then the son could not be required to take the exam as condition for course credit.