<p>Curmudgeon if I understand you correctly then, in your opinion the only reason for taking an AP class is to go for the AP credit? I’m sure there are others who agree with this. I don’t. </p>
<p>I really have no problem with the district requiring kids to test. But again, when the test is attached to the grade and taking it requires a fee, then if for any of the reasons I listed above or for other reasons I haven’t thought of, the student doesn’t want to take the test, they may just take it to purchase the extra weight. This doesn’t stop students from taking AP’s to boost their GPA’s, it just attaches a monetary cost to it. That is an unfair edge to those who are less worried about where their dollars go (just as a speeding ticket is more painful to people with less money.) However, if it is legal then there is nothing more to say about it. My question is, are their any legal grounds to refute this. If not so be it.</p>
<p>PS: I’m sorry for the double post above, I’m not sure how I did that.</p>
<p>I live in Texas, so I get the ranking. My kids are at a private school that doesn’t rank, so I didn’t imagine that you would get a boost from an AP class but not take the test. I still don’t agree with it, but I’ve heard crazier from the Texas educational system.</p>
<p>Many districts (maybe all?) in GA have the same policy – take the test or lose the weighted grade. However, in GA, for now anyway, the tests are paid for.</p>
<p>If your kid gets a 3,4, or 5 and gets college credit, it is a cheap price to pay. If you can’t afford paying for 6 AP tests now, how are you going to pay for college? A part-time job would certaqinly help you pay for that. And if you truly can’t afford the fee, the waiver is used. Our school district does it all the time!</p>
Another example of Newsweek’s bogus ranking methodology. It should be the percentage of test-takers who receive a score of 3 or above. Isn’t it possible that some of the highest-ranking schools have a majority of students scoring below a 3 on the AP exams? This isn’t figured at all into the rankings, is it?</p>
<p>Another bogus feature is that schools requiring entrance examinations for the entire school aren’t allowed to be in the rankings (ex. Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax County and the specialty NYC high schools). But schools that require entrance examinations for specific programs within the school (ex. IB) are allowed to be in Newsweek’s rankings.</p>
<p>CTTC - You are right. In the Houston area - there are schools that rank higher on the Newsweek ranking than our school, but when you look at the TEA site and check out the % of students that take AP exams vs the % of students who actually pass (3 or better) - there is a huge difference.</p>
<p>My son elected not to take the AP Econ test during the spring of his senior year. The class had been taught as a 1 semester class in the fall. </p>
<p>He felt he was not prepared (despite getting an A in the class) and after testing him, I agreed (I have a masters in Econ). The teacher tried to take the grade point away from him but it turns out to be against CA law to change a grade in that manner.</p>
<p>I found out later that essentially no one in the class passed the AP. The school no longer offers an AP Econ option.</p>
<p>In the world of education, there is almost always a way for someone to get what they qualify for, regardless of income. But you have to ask, sometimes very persistently. Start by calling College Board and asking about fee waivers.</p>
<p>In high school I took AP Calculus AB and barely passed. In fact, I’m not sure I did pass; I think I may have slipped by on teacher’s sympathy. I did so poorly that I didn’t bother taking the AP test.</p>
<p>The next year as a college freshman I aced Calculus blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back. While being chased by bears. It suddenly all made sense. I just needed more time to absorb it all. I ended up majoring in math and ultimately becoming an engineer.</p>
<p>My point is that AP classes are worthwhile regardless of how well you do on the tests, or whether you even take them. Exposure to the subject matter at a high level is valuable in itself.</p>
<p>Mantori: Thank you for speaking my language. It has always seemed to me that taking a more rigorous class for the sake of education merits the extra weight. It is hard for me to undersand why others don’t see that it’s about the education and not about the test and college credit. </p>
<p>ejr1: I agree with you, if you get college credit it is well worth the money. But sometimes you just know you won’t pass and in that case it isn’t worth it. My son was in a situation where he knew he was going to a college that has a great reputation for a subject taught really poorly in HS. It was clear to us that he would and should take the entry level class in college regardless of how he did on the AP test. Therefore there was really nothing to be gained and only money to be spent if he took this test.</p>
<p>lastminutemom196: If our district wasn’t requiring a contribution to the cost this would be a non issue. </p>
<p>I hope I have made it clear that even if I don’t agree with it I don’t take issue with the district requiring testing. I also don’t mind paying if I can decide which tests I will pay for without consequence. If this policy had been in place this past year I would have paid for the test I mentioned above to purchase the weight of the class. I expect others will elect to take fewer AP classes because of the expense.</p>
<p>From all I’m seeing and hearing no one knows of any legal grounds to refute this policy, if you do please share!</p>
<p>Please bear with me for resurrecting this thread one more time. We have a school board meeting coming up and I probably will discuss this topic on some level. I really don’t think that any arguments other than legal grounds will sway the board, but either way I expect to emphasize the issues about teaching quality in some classes. </p>
<p>I am having a hard time understanding the motivation for this policy shift and how it will improve our kid’s education. Sometimes it seems that this is a decision made to make the school look better statistically, sometimes it seems that it is being initiated to keep students from abusing the opportunities to “pad” their GPA’s. (On this latter point I think the solution only puts a price on the “padding”, and even if the student motivation is flawed the kids still have to do the work that the classes require.) The argument is also being made that the tests are needed so that the school can obtain data. But the district has not responded to the data that already exists including the reason why so few students are testing. To answer for them, I believe they see the low testing level as an indicator of poor committment on the part of the students rather than poor confidence in their ability to do well on the tests.</p>
<p>I would embrace this policy if I could believe that it would set our district moving in a positive direction educationally but I just don’t see that happening. What I do see is that this policy is one that discourages student reaching and that it is more discouraging the less affluent the student is, unless the student is poor enough to qualify for free lunch. Once again an example of squeezing the middle a little further. We are having much discussion at meetings to get this policy established and to figure out how to make students comply with it. Yet I have not heard any discussion about the really difficult topic. How to improve student performance and teaching. </p>
<p>I am sorry for rambling but if you can see how requiring testing will improve our program, or if you can see that requiring testing that costs money in public schools is justified and is for the greater good I would like to hear about it. If you have any ideas about strategies to improve our current level of performance, I would very much appreciate that information. And as before if you have any understanding about the legal grounds regarding the requirement of paying for an exam by using GPA as a lever for payment in the public school system please share this as well.</p>
<p>Thank you for your input, when all is said and done this shouldn’t be just about winning or loosing an argument it should be about improving education and outcomes.</p>
<p>In our district (N.Y.), students are required to sign a contract (before the first day of the class) that they will take the AP exam at the end of the AP class. Parents must pay for the test. We used to have to pay for every exam, but our district made a compromise that each parent must pay for 2 AP exams per child per year and they will pick up the fee for AP tests above that number per year. If a student/family can prove financial hardship, the PTA has a fund to help subsidize the cost for the student. I don’t have a problem at all with requiring students to take the exam in order to get the additional weight for the AP class. The exam is the culmination of the course.</p>
<p>In addition, it’s important for people to realize that although one pays for the test, this doesn’t mean that you won’t have to pay later to get the college credit. Each college has their own policy on this. At my older son’s in state public, the college “gave” him 18 credits for his AP scores. At younger son’s private college, we had to pay a per credit fee in order to get the credits via AP exams.</p>
<p>My son’s school, a math and science magnet school, does not require AP courses, strictly speaking, but they make up such a large fraction of the total courses offered that, in fact, nearly every kid ends up taking at least a couple. Perhaps because of this, the schools pays for all AP tests, whether you take one or ten. That is so nice.</p>
<p>In my sons’ school, the kids take regular semester exams in addition to the AP exam, so they are already tested on the cumulative material (per semester). So I don’t consider it to be the culmination of the course.</p>