I think the point is that they want to have the AP test when most schools are in session. I have worked in two states where school ended LONG before early June.
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But like someone else mentioned, they’re most likely taking more courses so have more of a workload. And if they play any sport, good luck with that time management .
Or any extracurriculars, really, for that matter.
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Perhaps the fact that high school these days is often seen as an audition for college admission, with many high school students playing for the school sports teams (relatively few college students do that) and adding additional time consuming extracurriculars to impress college admission readers (most non-pre-health college students do not do that), so it seems like many high achieving high school students are more heavily scheduled than they will be in college in activities outside of their course work.
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That is the single biggest waste of time and energy, not individually but collectively, for a sizeable portion of high school students in this country.
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I was just surprised by all the comments “school should change the calendar for AP,” when my first reaction was that it is the college board that needs to adapt.
Honestly, I don’t feel strongly about the issue.
I’m going to give a counterpoint. If the AP exams are moved to later in the academic year, students will be dealing with SAT test times in May and June also.
Our AP class students take the test. Then the last weeks of school are usually used to do some sort of paper or project to complete the coursework. It’s not like school just ends in those AP courses.
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That’s an issue currently with the May date, and has been since time immemorial.
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I’m in Missouri. School used to end maybe 2nd-3rd week of May, resume 2nd-3rd week of August. Lined up well with AP tests - Kids got nearly full academic year before APs, and only a little dead time after.
You know how certain states kowtow to this or that local industry? Well, Missouri political system apparently got pressured by the resort/vacation industry of Branson and Lake of the Ozarks, which didn’t want kids back in school in late August. So, per state law, we slid back about a week or two. Now will be more dead time post-APs this year for my D. Fortunately, this only came into play this year I think, and she’s graduating (older sibs took plenty of APs on the old system).
Anyways, school calendars aren’t always based on great inputs. That said, I did like Missouri’s early to school, early to summer system - it helped not only with the APs, but also, IMO, with ACTs and the like. I think there’s at least a weak correlation between ACTs and how far you are into your junior or senior year. Another week or two of math and english can’t hurt.
Granted, all of these effects are likely fairly small, but every little bit…
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In Virginia it’s known as the Kings Dominion law that says schools can’t start before Labor Day unless you can get a waiver - due to how many days/year you get off for snow/flood/heat (pre A/C in all schools)/etc. it was so the amusement parks could have their kids work through the busy season.
Our district started earlier and earlier, and now begins for teachers around Aug 1. Every year, there’s a push by the public for our district to move back so it’s like “the good old days.” No way IMO. It makes much more sense to have the semester over right at Xmas so it’s a real break vs when I was in school and loaded up with HW and projects and then had to worry about exams when you got back. And then you get out when the weather has a chance of being decent. August is so hot and horrible, you’re stuck inside all day. Even pools are gross by august. May as well be in school.
But the kicker is that teachers here are on a 10 month contract where you can choose to have them spread out over 12 months. If they go back in September, teachers will not have any paycheck in August. Some households are two teacher households. They’d lose all income to just be like the good old days. Not to mention losing health insurance. No thanks.
I never really thought about the AP tests. I figured my kids would deal with it fine. But also here the HS has a rule that if you have an A or B and a certain attendance, you don’t have to take the final. Before my kids got there, I thought I’d hate it. But once there, I admit it was nice not to have to worry about it. Both have done well in college anyway. Their DE/gov school classes I think had them though, so they got some experience with finals.
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That is a great point about standardized tests like ACT and SAT. I wondered why scores are higher in certain places. Students in our district tend to focus on the Oct/Nov SAT. The June one makes so much more sense for students who are already out of school. For us with Junior formals and spring sport championships many do not choose to take them in the spring. School does not end until June 22nd this year. Which now that I think about it, leaves almost 2 full months lost of AP teaching.
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I have relatives who never finished their school year until some time in June. But, I’ve lived in 2 states where students finished in mid-May, which aligns perfectly with the APs. Locally, there has been a push towards something closer to year-round without actually calling it that, and now they finish at the end of May. Many schools also do block schedules. One teacher that I know said that it was brutal to try to teach an entire AP class in a semester without having the entire final month - that’s moving more quickly than the equivalent college class.
We homeschool and finish in early May. Moving the tests out another week would be ideal for us so that we could finish the semester and then have some time to study. But, moving them into June would be hard for us and for the public school kids in the May-finishing states. For some kids that I know, they’d have to be brought home from summer dance intensives, governor’s school, summer jobs at scout camp, etc, to take tests in the middle of their summer break and they’d be needing to study while doing those activities.
When states have such different schedules, there isn’t an ideal time that is good for everybody.
Our schools end about June 10…depending on snow days.
After the AP tests are done…AP class students continue to work on papers or projects related to the class.
Are you all saying that your AP classes do nothing after the AP tests end? If so…maybe that is what needs some rethinking.
One of our AP teachers retiring right after the test. I think that says something. They do some work but it is relatively lighter than the rest of the year. They learned the material for the class crammed into a shorter time frame.
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My friends with kids taking APs at our local public school (end of year ~June 20) say that after the AP tests the classes watch “relevant” movies, do low-key group projects, play subject related games. Sometimes teachers will have optional assignments for kids to bring up lower-than-they-prefer grades…Those things aren’t terrible but 6 weeks of them is a bit much.
The whole last month of school in our district is weird, though, because seniors have to have their finals done by the third week of May. Teachers can’t give them any assignments after that. Last week of May is “senior week” and then they graduate. But many classes have mixed grade students so it is challenging to do meaningful work with anyone after the middle of May.
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Our school district is the same, but it may be class dependent. The APUSH teacher has already told the kids that there will be lots of movies for the last 6 weeks, and that class was a real push to get done. They finish the last unit the week before the AP test and covered one chapter a week. It is a class that is only taken by the highest level kids in our school because of this.
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My DS24 attends a private school where the students in AP classes have a more condensed schedule. They begin at the same time, but AP classes end by the end of April. They also begin the second semester two weeks earlier for AP classes than for honors or regular classes. It’s had the effect of overriding most breaks like holiday break or spring break. They don’t have class during those times, but they do have assignments to complete and readings to do.
There’s no easy way to plan for the beginning of school and the timing of the AP tests other than to teach at an accelerated schedule or cover as much of the material as possible to master and assigning the rest as self-study. As a parent, I have seen the accelerate schedule, and while it is tough on the student to never really have a full break during the academic year, it is beneficial to cover all of the material in school in advance of the tests.
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I think ours is like yours, though I don’t think there is much graded stuff. I think it’s more fun, related, extra curricular stuff. Like making ice cream in AP chemistry.
Ours is graded stuff. The teachers really make it clear.
But no AP kids have finals because our school requires them all to take the AP exams even though those results won’t affect grades.
Same, except for English which is the one AP every takes.
The stakes can be much lower than a final thought. At that point DD knew that non of her Sr year APs would count. 2 she wanted a 5 out of pride, the other 2 could be submitted but wouldn’t bc there was no interest in placing in a higher level math or calc class.