I agree with what seems to be the majority opinion that requiring (rather than encouraging) an AP class is a bad idea. As @mathyone pointed out, where are all the extra AP certified teachers going to come from? My kids go to a competitive public high school that regularly sends the top 5-10% to top schools and honors programs. The AP teachers at our HS are the strongest teachers. But a lot of the other teachers especially in social studies aren’t the best teachers. IMHO they would not be up to the job of effectively teaching an AP class. Also, just because a HS student isn’t ready for an AP class doesn’t mean the student can’t ever succeed in college. Some kids are just slower developers.
Probably most non-elite high schools would not be able to design suitable courses for advanced students if they were not able to use pre-made AP syllabi for them.
Some college courses have large projects that are substantial portions of the grade. These include many humanities and social studies courses, as well as computer science courses other than the purely theory ones.
Other differences:
- For many AP courses, the college course that the AP course tries to emulate covers material more quickly (i.e. in a semester in college, rather than a year in high school). Examples: psychology, statistics, calculus AB, chemistry, any of the physics ones, environmental science.
- Actual college courses typically meet for fewer hours per week (except for lab sciences, which have longer lab sessions than usually found in high school), but students are expected to do more reading, assignments, and projects out of class on their own, with fewer "busywork" and "progress monitoring" type of assignments that are common in high school.
- Some AP courses cannot cover as advanced material as the emulated college course, due to fewer assumptions about prerequisite knowledge. For example, the physics C AP courses assume less advanced math (single variable calculus taken concurrently) than calculus based physics in college (typically started *after* a semester of single variable calculus, and E&M is typically taken with multivariable calculus). Some college biology courses make significant use of (college) general or organic chemistry that biology AP courses in high school may not be able to.
My son attended a small rural school. His school offered one AP course (Calculus AB). He was one of only 8 students in his graduating class who took the class. And of those 8, only 2 scored a 4 or 5 on the AP test.
There is NO WAY the students in my son’s school would be prepared to take a mandatory AP class. In our district, the time is usually spent arguing about the state required standardized testing since only about 50% of the students manage to score high enough on those to demonstrate they have grade level knowledge.
Now don’t get me wrong, my son is in school on a full tuition scholarship, a couple others that graduated from his school are in med school, and one other that attended his school is an MIT grad, but I’m guessing those students received A LOT of outside enrichment - I know that’s true for my son.
If students were going to be required to take an AP class, they’d have to find a way to improve the K-8 curriculum to prepare them, or they’d just be setting them up for failure.
I think that while it’s a great idea, it’s not a requirement that might work for all students. What I do hope that more schools would consider is paying for the AP test fee for students who take the AP course can take the AP exam one time at no cost to them.
However, not every student is necessarily going to succeed in an AP class. It’s definitely one of those things where “your mileage may vary.”
Our kids attend a charter school. Starting in 8th grade, they can take AP classes. Graduation requirements at the school are such that you must pass something like 6 or 7 AP exams with a 3 or better otherwise you cannot graduate from the high school. The school pays the fee for each student to take the AP exam 1 time. If you need to take it a 2nd or 3rd time in order to pass, then the student and his/her family has to pay the exam fee. In addition, your AP exam score constitutes something like 50-60% of your final grade for the class for the year.
No offense, but I have a really, really hard time believing this and if it is true then it is even more ridiculous than the OP’s plan.
I know it’s possible. I did it (I passed 9). But really after about 5 there was little point in the rest. They went to general credits in college and wouldn’t have really helped me graduate early. Plus I didn’t use them to help me boost my college apps- I didn’t take the classes and I could only list about 5 tests on the applications.
I’d yank my kid from any school that worships at the alter of the collegeboard. And since it’s a charter school, I’d wonder who is benefiting financially from a school that requires students to take these exams. Collegeboard would get probably an average of 1k per student in tests fees. It’s fishy.
Schools should also get rid of GPA weighting. The GPA inflation nowadays is beyond ridiculous, and the higher weight given for AP courses just causes pernicious GPA grubbing.
I appreciate the honesty of this parent’s explanation of why her kid was taking so many AP courses:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19350185/#Comment_19350185
What if they have no plans for college? Isn’t the original intention of AP classes to prepare for college-level rigor and possibly get college credit later?
Why should students with no future academic plans be forced into taking classes that are very rigorous and beyond their intellectual capabilities just to graduate high school? That would be a miserable and humiliating experience for them, and why? People on here sometimes act like only the AP and Honors courses even teach kids anything. Believe it or not, students actually learn in the regular English, Social Sciences and Science classes too! Wow.
Getting rid of weighting alone wouldn’t fix the rampant GPA inflation. A’s are just too easy to get at too many schools. I see many students posting 99/100 averages and think, wow, something is wrong with that picture. And their standardized test scores aren’t perfect to match.
I think that is the real problem. I have no problem with weighing. Why should an A in a regular class be viewed the same as an A in an AP class? If high schools didn’t weigh, colleges would still weigh in effect as the student with all As in AP and honors courses would still be viewed as a stronger student than the student with all A’s in regular level courses (given course availability at each school, of course)
In theory it sounds great, the reality is very different.
@romanigypsyeyes - I have taught AP for over a decade and have never seen anyone retake an exam the next year. Do they have to pay for it again? Do they retake the class? I can’t imagine they would do better a year later without additional content/instruction
Forcing students into APUSH is particularly problematic because US history is a graduation requirement at our school (and most, I think) so if they don’t pass, they would not graduate from high school. And it’s also one of the high workload APs. On the other hand, what purpose does it serve to force students into “easy” APs? We all know those aren’t representative of college level work. But the poor kids being forced into them may not realize that.
I find it ironic that on another thread it’s being discussed that the algebra requirement should be done away with because it’s keeping too many kids from graduating from hs, whereas on this thread it’s being discussed that all kids were born in Lake Woebegone and are ready for above grade level work, and want to put forth the effort to do it.
I’d be happy if all kids would rise to the challenge of passing regular algebra2 but apparently that isn’t happening.
@toowonderful I don’t think you meant to direct your post at me. I think retaking AP tests is ridiculous.
@romanigypsyeyes - you are entirely correct, sorry, missed the text box in your post to show you were quoting 
No worries
Most of this discussion has been about AP classes. Two of the three IB programs in town require all juniors to take Lang and Lit. I think this is even worse than requiring an AP Lit class because you can’t test unless you take the 2nd year of the IB class as well, so you couldn’t get any college credit for the junior year of the class.
It is ridiculous to require AP and/or IB classes. Not every student is going to need AP classes. I think we need to push students to do their best, but for some students, it is more realistic to push them toward skilled careers. And let’s face it … we need our electricians, plumbers, welders, and car mechanics.
Not only do I agree with @tutumom2001 , but I think there is something to be said for requiring every student to take a shop class and every student to take home ec, the kind with a line of stoves where cooking is taught.
My wife was a principal for a couple of years at a school that had a very good vo-tech and ag program. Kids were able to graduate and go straight to work welding, on in auto repair, or in various farm jobs. We need to recognize that not every kid should go to college and help every child learn the skills necessary to be a good and productive citizen.
Wait, why would someone think it’s ok to require a shop class when it’s not ok to require AP or IB? Why should the kids and teachers who care about shop have to put up with kids who don’t want to be there? (Trying for some internal consistency as I work through how I feel about this topic.)
Good point, actually, #38.