According to this article, quite a few schools are doing just that.  The reasons vary, but the frustration seems to be one of academic authority in the classroom versus one institution dictating academic excellence to all.

In reality, the AP system offers students the chance to earn college credit and prove commitment to a certain level of academic rigor.  Use the system well and you start school as a sophomore!  But for most, the AP helps raise the bar so that high school classes resemble college classes and ease the transition from high school to college.  Should kids feel pressured to take AP exams?  No, but they should be encouraged to take the best courseload they can handle to prepare best for college.  Do colleges really give too much weight to AP exams?  Probably not.  A student who can ace lots of AP exams should already stand out in GPA.  A student who does not do real well on the exams but takes the courses shows effort and willingness to accept challenge, which colleges appreciate.  But as with any standardized test result, great test scores do not guarantee college admission to the elite schools.

The complaints from teachers seems odd.  Why would a teacher complain about having to teach a more rigorous class?  The AP requires teachers use a certain book and make sure the content of the class prepares the student for the content of the exam (and the format as well).  But I know from experience that teachers go about the same AP class in very different ways.  Teachers are not prohibited from innovation or creativity or even more rigor.  Yes, if the AP grades come back poor that teacher may be removed from AP eligibility in the future, but that could happen even if the teacher gives AP practice tests every day, just as one who never did that could have students ace the AP exam.  The proof is in the quality of the class curriculum, which is the whole point of the AP — getting that rigor, that pre-college experience.

So here is one vote for not removing the AP, but making it better.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at 2:34 pm and is filed under For Educators, For Parents, For Students. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.