The importance of control for advanced classes

Any high school student who has taken Advanced Placement classes and successfully completed the accompanying standardized test knows the value of the system. At minimum, an especially rigorous curriculum leads to deeper learning in an interesting subject. At best, a student performing well on the AP test can convert that high school classwork into college credit.

It’s a useful system for students, and for schools, it’s increasingly becoming a measure of excellence, the number and diversity of AP offerings suggesting a commitment to quality that factors into school rankings and even some aid formulas.

But has the program, operated by the not-for-profit College Board, reached a tipping point beyond which many students are suffering, both financially and psychologically, under the pressure to meet standards that are beyond them and take an expensive test on which they have little hope of achieving the score required to reap the tangible benefits of the system?

An Associated Press report of the past week asks that question. Noting that the number of students taking AP exams has more than doubled in the past 10 years, the wire service report fuels worries that the tests have proliferated so much that for many schools, they can be virtually an exercise in failure.

While the proportion among all high school students who pass an AP exam has increased substantially over the period, the percentage of just test-taking students who fail with the lowest possible score has grown even more. At least some experts fret that many schools are inserting AP classes into the curriculum without sufficient justification or support, leading to high failure rates and steering students away from classes that are less prestigious but more suited to their level of learning.

The subject resonates in the suburbs, where the nationwide growth of AP exams is repeated at numerous districts, and it bears studied reflection by school boards and parents. Hard data is lacking at the local level, but it seems unlikely that most high-performing suburban schools have seen the kinds of shortfalls the Associated Press story recounts. Still, the value of the report is not so much in what it suggests is happening on a broad national level but in what it shows could happen at a local level.

The fact is, as the wire service states, the AP exam system remains the “de facto gold standard for high school rigor.” Suburban students generally are fortunate to have a healthy variety of college-level AP courses to choose from, with supportive school districts and skillful teachers.

The challenge for school districts is to maintain those quality ingredients, keep close watch on the growth of AP offerings and ensure that the success of the program does not become diluted or detract from the standard educational offerings that benefit all students.