Can we just break the AP monopoly?

Last updated on: February 26, 2015 at 11:13 pm by Jane the Actuary

Can we just break the AP monopoly? 2015-02-26T23:13:06-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The National Review has been reporting on the controversial changes to the AP US History syllabus, and its new emphasis on race and class themes, and its abandonment of the notion of just learning “straightforward” history, with the rationale that, after all, an introductory college-level history course presumes that you’ve learned all the names and dates back in high school and moves on to bigger weighty issues and Grand Themes. See here and here for background.

A couple weeks ago, Stanley Kurtz even proposed that it’s “Time to Break the College Board’s AP Testing Monopoly,” by means of other testing companies competing for the college-equivalence-testing business of schools and students, perhaps initially via contracts from states which reject the College Board’s syllabus. Now, I’m all for this, in keeping with a general principle of opposing monopolies in general, but I think that’s only the first step.

The concept of the “AP” course began in the 1950s (per Wikipedia), at a time when, not only was there no such thing as online learning, but even the community college was still becoming established (Wikipedia, again), and (though the article isn’t entirely clear) nothing like the current norm in which every locality not only has a school district but a Community College District.

To begin with, US History is a class taught at pretty much every college and community college across the country. Could one of them — a Hillsdale, for instance — step up and say, “we’ll offer college credit based on a satisfactory score on an exam which we have prepared” at a fee similar to the $100 bucks or so that the College Board charges? Each individual college would then have to decide whether they’ll accept this as a transferable credit, of course, but in principle this would be no different than a student taking a summer school college class and applying for transfer credit.

Are there rules against credit-by-exam, perhaps as a condition of accreditation? I don’t know — the degree-completion programs which used to advertise so heavily (perhaps they still do, and I just don’t hear the ads because I don’t have a commute during which I listen to the radio any longer) certainly say that they grant credit for life experiences. Are colleges unwilling, because it cuts into their profit margin not to collect the full tuition for a class?

The second option is to go beyond a high-school class aimed at teaching at a level sufficient to prepare students to take a cumulative “college-level” test, and actually, by means of working with the local community college, offer a true college class. Really, what would stand in the way of this? Community colleges hire plenty of adjunct faculty. The going rate used to be $1500 per course per semester. Although presumably it’s grown since then, it’s still not much, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the AP test fees that students pay, at a high school large enough for a couple sections of a given AP class, would be sufficient to pay a fee to the associated community college to cover their costs in assigning a “mentor-professor” with oversight to ensure that the class has sufficient rigor to merit its students being granted college credit upon completion.

And there are classes like this; the handbook that we received when my son started high school described several vocational paths, in computers and networking, food service, and the like, in which the capstone course as a high school senior simultaneously granted college credit. Presumably this has not been used as a method of granting college credit for more “traditional” college classes because the AP exams were seen as an easier way of achieving this goal.

Even in smaller schools, and in rural parts of the country, the availability of online learning certainly opens up more options in a local teacher pairing with a college based elsewhere in the country, or even students taking classes online, in the same manner as a “real” college student, except without tuition costs.

But, hey, even Wikipedia says, “Faculty at a number of universities have expressed doubts about the value of a passing AP score. Highly capable students who receive scores of 3 or 4, but not the perfect 5, are being given college credit at fewer universities. Academic departments also criticise the increasing proportion of students who take and pass AP courses but are not ready for college-level work.” And I can see this: at my son’s high school, they really push AP classes, and say that they want every student to take at least one AP class.

And when it comes to a subject like American History, a student is able to supplement their coursework with additional reading, if their instruction is inadequate, and they feel they need more knowledge before they can take an upper-level history class. But my son is already looking ahead to his senior level and wanting to take one of the AP science classes offered at his school — and I would feel much better about the prospect of moving on directly to a sophomore level class upon starting college if his preparedness was based on ongoing assessment during a full year of “true” college-level work rather than a single test, however rigorous.

If, on the other hand, AP tests are viewed as perfectly adequate to the task because they are not used as a real replacement for college-level work, but as just another tool in the arsenal of students competing for slots at highly-selective colleges, well, that’s just unfortunate.

Uncategorized

education

high school

Previous Post

October 24, 2014

Reihan Salam was having an off-day yesterday

Next Post

October 25, 2014 What would you do?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What nation captured Jerusalem and took Daniel captive?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Egypt Assyria Babylonia Persia