patrick.net

That happens a lot these days. Some schools, even some exclusive private high schools intentionally avoid the AP courses, in an effort to avoid that track and in the interest of more creative and diverse programs.

But at most schools, all the strongest students are taking way more AP courses than students did 20 or 30 years ago. It has steadily increased. And I know that admissions people at the very best colleges and universities fully expect most of their applicants to have a lot of AP classes under their belts, and a lot of 4s and 5s on AP exams.

The downside, if there is one, is that some students are pushing themselves too hard. The competition, at least for getting in to the best schools has gotten pretty crazy.

SF Ace says:

Wow more reasons why top school district is a good return on investment.

True. But the student still needs to have the habits and the aptitude, enabling them to be in those classes. At the school that I teach at, we have a huge AP program, but we also have a huge number of students that don't participate, for one reason or another. A child can't be a slacker up until high school, not reading, hating school, and then all of the sudden you move to a good district, and magically the student becomes a straight A student and an "AP scholar." But I guess that's obvious.

marcus says

But at most schools, all the strongest students are taking way more AP courses than students did 20 or 30 years ago.

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/the-advanced-placement-juggernaut/

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/09/philip-sadler/

Back when I was in high school, AP courses were glamorized to me. But by the time college came, all it really meant was that I did not have to take placement tests. So your colleague's daughter most likely skipped placement tests, and the system allowed her to skip low level courses which you'd be subjected to if you were required to take placement tests and scored low. You don't get any free units.

vain says

You don’t get any free units.

??

MAny schools will give credit and units for passing grades on AP exams. It depends on the class, and the school.

Here's an example: http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/apexams.html

marcus says

vain says

You don’t get any free units.

??
MAny schools will give credit and units for passing grades on AP exams. It depends on the class, and the school.
Here’s an example: http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/apexams.html

That is amazing and something I totally missed. I don't think that was available during my time (or I didn't score high enough LOL). I always thought those were the fun classes any how.

When my daughter graduated HS, several people graduated hs and received their associate's degree at the same time. It was truly impressive.

"Wow more reasons why top school district is a good return on investment."

I love that in this country, that means to different things for different comunities.
Schools that are near the Gated Comunities, good schools mean they offer advantages like your post suggests.
Other Neighborhoods, A good school district, simply means no students got shot in a given year.

clueless says:

Schools that are near the Gated Comunities, good schools mean they offer advantages like your post suggests.

My school offers a huge AP program. It's a public school in a middle class area in Los Angeles. It is true that some areas have better public schools than others. It's true that these are usually in areas with more expensive housing, but often with many reasonable apartment rental options as well.

Wise parents in major metropolitan areas can always swing a GREAT public school option if it's a high enough priority.

But after privatization kicks in for a few decades, who knows ?

We didn't have AP at my high school - we took classes through the university down the street. We received college credits but the actual grades didn't count towards the GPA unless, of course, you went on to attend that particular university. I think this is par for the course when you transfer from one university to another then again this was over 20 years ago.

I read a while back that if too many college credits are attained in HS that you can be treated as a transfer student and some scholarships are no longer available. One would think a guidance counselor would be aware of this but with the number of schools out there they might not have run across this "problem". Something to keep in mind down the road, perhaps?

I didn't have a teacher like Ms Miller - but I do have an uncle that sent me a programming book when I was 12 for our C64. I should call him up and thank him for introducing me to my career at such a young age. I can still hear him saying "Quit using GOTO - use GOSUB for crying out loud!"

SF ace says

Yes to each their own

Wow thick and clueless!
My point there should be no school district better than any other. Why in the hell is one school offering anything that benefits those pupils over other pupils in the same city, county or state for that matter?
They should Bus the inner City youth to those schools.

Actually one of the best ways to end some poverty is to do exactly what you're saying Tenouncetrout. For the exact reasons that SFace points out. It's not the institution, it's the students and parents have aligned goals that far outweigh the goals of the students in the inner city. If you want your kid to do well, put him where kids are expecting more from life than what you expect. The kids will pick up on that through dealing with those kids and aim for those goals.

I think in part, that was the idea behind the section 8 housing. Move the poor into better neighborhoods where their children will pick up the ambitions of those around them, and hopefully some of the younger adults as well. Of course if you simply move a large section of section 8 housing people into one area they stick together and never get the benefits. Put some poor kid into a better neighborhood and he'll start picking up the ambitions of those around him.

I did the same thing back in the days. I graduated HS with over a year of college credits due to AP courses.

Only thing I hated is that from the time I graduated to a time I started college the qualifications changed. So all of a sudden colleges simply disregarded almost 1/3rd of my AP credits as irrelevant, even though they were basically the exact same thing I ended up taking again in college.

Let me see where was that article about parents driving students.... here it is:

"many of the simple pleasures of childhood are not allowed by a Chinese mother: sleepovers, playdates, school drama productions, TV, computer games, A-minuses or below."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/01/on-sale-today-the-chinese-mothers-battle-cry.html

Yes, here is the previoius one that was so widely sent around.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

It is obviously true that parenting makes far more of a difference than teachers. Every teacher knows that to be true. IT doesn't mean we pass the buck to the parents. We still have to do our best, and a good teacher is still going to feel that they are failing when the child fails or does poorly.

Still,...it is true.

pkennedy says

I think in part, that was the idea behind the section 8 housing. Move the poor into better neighborhoods where their children will pick up the ambitions of those around them, and hopefully some of the younger adults as well. Of course if you simply move a large section of section 8 housing people into one area they stick together and never get the benefits. Put some poor kid into a better neighborhood and he’ll start picking up the ambitions of those around him.

Then lets section 8 the bay area, it worked in the South.