Advanced Placement And Quality Control

It’s no coincidence that as student participation in Advanced Placement classes has ratcheted up rapidly in this state, the rate of passage on AP exams has commensurately fallen. That pattern has been playing out in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, the former a notable leader in encouraging ever more students to take AP classes. Also no coincidence: AP participation rates are now factored into Florida’s grading formula for high schools.

Now we have a poll, likely seen by many as a form of validation, that shows that local parents are decidedly in favor of opening up AP classes to “average” students as well as those traditionally defined as “advanced.”

Two points.

First, of course parents will respond that way. No polled parent has “average” kids.

Second, an “equal opportunity” approach, however egalitarianly appealing, isn’t best in all academic contexts, especially when it comes to more merit-conscious high school. No reason to be rigidly inflexible in qualification criteria, of course, but there was a reason for AP in the first place. And it wasn’t to complement the self-esteem curriculum.

Nor was it to preclude opportunity for lesser achievers.  It was to accommodate those whose test scores, achievements and manifest motivation clearly fit the parameters of “advanced” and would be able to take more challenging, college-level courses for college credit. And then prove their mettle by passing the AP exam. The courses were to be taught by the most academically proficient — “advanced,” if you will — faculty members.

Less than half the students now pass the standardized exams. Anecdotal evidence indicates more and more veteran AP teachers becoming frustrated by the talent pool that is more diverse but more diluted. In short, the AP ranks now include less than the best and brightest students — and more not-ready-for-prime time instructors.  The pattern only looks to become more pronounced.

In Pinellas County, for example, roughly a quarter of the 200 or so AP teachers had fewer than 20 percent of their students pass AP exams last year. Twelve teachers had none. None.

Who is this benefiting — other than a school’s overall state grade because AP recruitment is off the charts? Just because you invoke the good name of “equal opportunity,” doesn’t mean you’re realistically affording it. But it does mean you’re compromising quality control. We already have that problem elsewhere in our schools.

AP stands for “Advanced Placement” — not “Abandoned Priority.”

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