@Quantmech – there are some states that essentially include gifted education within the IEP framework, but that is a function of state law and would not apply generally outside those particular states.
@quantmech In Pennsylvania, gifted students are offered a Free & Appropriate education(FAPE) as exceptional students as defined in state statue. Often, AP classes are offered in lieu of gifted classes at a HS level. I think one would have a legal argument that it would be inappropriate for a gifted student, offered an AP class as part of their Gifted Individual Education Plan, to have to pay for AP fees as a required component of their FAPE. However, I have never run into such a case in PA – typically AP exams are not required even in an AP class.
I suspect at least part of the reason some schools resist making AP exams optional is an understanding that a lot of kids who would not take the test (such as kids going to super selective colleges) are likely to do very well on the exams. Schools typically publish AP exam passage rates. Your passage rates likely take a hit if you make the exams optional. Optional tests also can lead to gaming the passage rates: discourage kids who you think will fail from taking the tests. Wouldn’t surprise me if that happens in some test optional schools.
AP teacher here- my district requires kids to take the test in order to receive the weighted grade.
OP - so sorry. I feel your pain.
I refused to pay for AP exams at the end of senior year because my kids already had all the AP credit their colleges would accept and, more importantly, I felt like College Board already had more than enough of my money. Our local school did not require AP exams, but it may have been the first time strong students opted out. It distressed one son and I asked him why and what advantage there was to taking the exam. He said he could get some sort of AP honor designation and I said that was not worth it to me. (I did point out he could pay with his own money if it was really important to him) He was accepted to college. He didn’t need any more high school honors in my opinion. He said one of his cousins was going to have more AP exams and I replied his cousin was going to a state university that was giving him credit for all those AP exams. One of the office workers asked me about registration for the exams and I just said I wasn’t paying for any more AP exams. Too expensive. She looked rather startled but didn’t follow it up.
@psycholing I guess that would have been a good argument for my kid (had to pay for and sit for the AP exams, also had a GIEP in PA). Missed that opportunity.
Seems like this was less of an issue decades ago when high schools may have offered 5-10 AP courses (most of which were the ones that are more likely to be given advanced placement in college), and strong students took 2-5 of them.
FAPE does not apply at all in this situation. What is at stake is a matter of equity…which most states and districts are just beginning to grapple with. If the district requires the students to take the tests, they need to pay for those students who cannot afford the fees. To not do so is unethical…though unfortunately not illegal.
We paid at the beginning of the class, not the end.
Colleges look at a HS’s profile and see how their students do on the exams. So not taking the exam hurts your school, and may or may not hurt the individual student. I our school if you were permitted to take the class (not all were, it was a private school) you took the test. period.
But we don’t know that the OP’s district doesn’t do that already – I think that it is common for districts to subsidize the costs of lower income students. But the OP is wrote that they were “prepared to pay top dollar for a top school” – so probably is relatively affluent and wouldn’t qualify for financial help with the fees.
Forcing students to take the test does not raise average scores. Quite the contrary. I have friends who were graders. They graded kids whose essays went something like “I’m only taking this test because I have to…”
I understand that the duty for a taxpayer to pay for a free education ends at high school, so I understand why some taxpayers might not want to pay for the AP test itself under the theory that the benefit of the AP test is to give an individual kid college credit.
But if a district doesn’t want to pay for the test, then the test should be optional and the kids class ranking should not be negatively impacted (so AP bump-up should not be removed) because the family can’t/won’t pay for the test. Having the extra credit for the difficulty of the AP course removed is discriminatory against kids whose families can’t afford the fees and it actually hurts kids who are competing for scholarships or who live in states where the top X percent of kids get admitted to the state flagship.
Personally I feel like the AP scores give good, independent feedback to the school and as a taxpayer I’d support my school district paying for the APs. But that’s up to the voters in the town and I think it’s fair enough to say districts don’t have to pay for the tests as long as students aren’t hurt by not taking them.
Just as a point of interest, when my daughter was in high school we had to pay for AP but the IB was free. Seven years later when my son was at the same high school AP was free but you had to pay for the IB. I have no idea what happened during those seven years to cause that change.
I don’t think it covers the situation to say that the schools will pay the exam fees for students whose families are unable to pay, if that is based on free or reduced lunch status.
There was a survey fairly recently that asked people if they could come up with $400 in case of an emergency. A very high proportion of the people surveyed said it would be difficult (well beyond the fraction who qualify for free and reduced lunch, I would guess)…
I can easily understand being uncomfortable with paying $658 to CB (on top of everything else that has been paid to CB) for AP exams that will not grant any college credit, even if the family has the money with no trouble and did not have any other planned use for it. An obligation to do this, in order for the student to receive credit for the class (or to receive the AP grade bump), seems like an inappropriate demand by the school.
In our case, to come up with $658, Rover would have to do without the Orvis Super-Comfort dog bed with the Tempur-pedic filling and the special chew-resistant fabric cover. (Rover keeps giving me sidelong glances.)
Isn’t there anything associated with funding and AP tests taken? Whether that funding is something from the state government, federal government or College Board I’m not sure, but there must be some agreement involved.
I could see something like College Board giving a discount to schools based on the number of students taking AP exams.
A student purposely sabotaging is AP test/score should have some consequence, which may only be feasible if a school incorporates the AP score somehow into the final grade. Then again, if a kid thinks the AP score wont be considered in college, not realizing that it may affect meeting (or in this case not) a prerequisite, or if they end up transferring somewhere where the AP could have mattered, the pay their consequence, I suppose.
“You knew the job was dangerous when you took it , Fred!” --Super Chicken
Totally understand not wanting to pay for tests that won’t benefit your kid in some way (and I’d be whining plenty also) but since it was “part of admission” to take the class it’s too late to worry about it now.
Our district does not require the tests to be taken and does not pay for them. However, there is value to taking the tests, even if it does not lead to credits. As others have said, the school’s profile and ranking can be based on number of APs offered, number of tests taken, and the percent of kids doing well. If all the kids going to elite schools opt out of taking the test for 7 APs as seniors, the overall school scores would go down. That may be why the district requires the students to take the test.
Our district also uses the results to make decisions about course offerings and who is allowed to take the tests. Unlike some districts, ours is fairly restrictive on some AP classes which continues the very high percent of kids that pass. Another local district, for example, has kids enroll in a BC calc class but have them take only the AB test.
I would think that if a family has a economic reason for not affording the test, there may be money to pay even if they were not eligible for free lunch. If a family really objects, the school may let the kid out of the tests but that information would get out and other kids would follow.
I don’t think the district should be required to pay for these tests. The students benefit by gaining access to college level courses.
It looks like Williams uses some AP scores, along with other factors, for placement of students in certain departments. A top score on BC calc may get a kid out of one semester of calculus (even if that doesn’t mean they can graduate early).
This does not seem to make much sense. Why run through the material at the faster BC pace and not have the students try for the higher BC instead of AB AP credit?
@VickiSoCal - the high school has trimesters. For the 1st two trimesters, they have actual grades, not incompletes. Then for the last trimester’s grades and for the classes’ grades for the whole year, it’s largely based on how they do on the AP exam (if it’s an AP class) or on the comprehensive exam in May. Seniors do have actual senior year grades that show up on their transcripts for the fall trimester when they are applying to colleges.