Two faces of advanced placement
New York Times News Service
Jan. 9, 2006 06:00 PM
By Tamar Lewin
When Terry B. Grier became superintendent of the district, which serves more than 67,000 students, the two
high schools with the most affluent students offered at least 15 Advanced Placement courses; the 12 others
offered only a handful. So Grier decreed that every high school would have at least 15 AP courses, every
student who took an AP class would be required to take the AP exam, paid for by the district, and every AP
teacher would have special training. He cajoled local businesses to donate the prizes to create momentum
for the program.
"Why should your ability to access a quality academic course be bound by where you live in our community,
in our country?" says Grier. "APs are not for the elite, they're for the prepared. And it's our job to prepare
these kids."
His efforts have doubled the number of students taking AP courses, doubled the scholarship money they
receive from colleges, and tripled the number of AP students who are black, in a district that is about half
minority. Last year, 246 students qualified for "Cool to Be Smart," and while Laura St. Cyr was the only one
to get a Honda CRV, all of them were eligible for college credits that could save them on tuition. (Many
universities award credit for courses when students score at least a 3 - out of 5 - on the exam.)
Tactics differ, but Grier's commitment to the Advanced Placement program has become part of the gospel of
improving education in hundreds of struggling urban and rural districts. Schools are doing all kinds of things
to nudge students into AP classes, which are intended to mirror introductory college survey courses.
At some schools in Dallas, students get $100 for every test on which they score 3 or higher, thanks to a
partnership with Texas Instruments; their teachers also get $100, in addition to $20 an hour for tutoring
them. In New Jersey, Hackensack High School attracted 300 students to a new summer-school program to
help hard-working students move into AP classes. Arkansas, Florida and South Carolina pay for all their
students' exams, which would otherwise cost $82 a shot. Minnesota will join the list this year.
The Advanced Placement program, administered by the College Board, began 50 years ago as a way to
give a select few high school students a jump-start on college work. But in recent decades, it has morphed
into something quite different - a mass program that reaches more than a million students each year and is
used almost as much to impress college admissions officers and raise a school's reputation as to get college
credit. As the admissions race has hit warp speed, Advanced Placement has taken on new importance, and
government officials, educators and the College Board itself have united behind a push to broaden access to
AP courses as a matter of equity in education.
But at the very time that schools like those in Guilford County, Dallas and Hackensack are jumping on the
AP bandwagon, many of the elite schools that pioneered AP are losing enthusiasm, looking for ways to cut
their students loose from curriculums that can cram in too much material at the expense of conceptual
understanding and from the pressure to amass as many AP grades on their transcripts as possible. A few
have abolished AP programs altogether, and many have limited students to taking three a year, fearing
burnout and bad scores.
It's not that a large number of private schools shun AP courses - to the contrary, the number offering them
rose 15 percent last year - but teachers and college counselors at many top-notch schools, public and
private, confess to discomfort with the way the program seems to hijack the curriculum.
"We've been put off for quite a while about the idea of teaching to the test, which is what a lot of APs are,"
says Lynn Krahling, guidance director of the Queen Anne's School in Upper Marlboro, Md. "We're
convinced, as an educational institution, that they're not as valuable as what we could be offering on our
own.
"But," she says, "I think we're going to stick with APs - purely out of fear. Parents are so terrified that if we
drop our APs it would really affect college admissions that I think some of them would jump ship."
Sixty percent of American high schools now participate in the program, which offers courses in 35 subjects,
from macroeconomics to music theory. Last year, 1.2 million students took 2.1 million AP exams, and the
number of students taking AP courses has increased tenfold since 1980. Newsweek magazine has gone so
far as to rank the nation's best public high schools using the number of students who merely show up to take
AP or International Baccalaureate tests as the sole criterion. (IB is another advanced curriculum, though far
less common; Grier counts it for his "Cool to Be Smart" program.)
No wonder, then, that more than 3,000 students took seven or more AP exams last year. No wonder, either,
that some students use the AP program tactically, knowing that their senior-year AP course listings will
appear on their transcripts, and be counted in admissions decisions, long before they take the AP exam in
May - if they ever do. (The AP brand is a curious one: Students can take the exams, which run three hours,
without taking the courses.) Part of the pressure to take AP classes also springs from the fact that most
schools weigh AP grades more heavily than others - an A in AP is often worth five points, while a regular A
is worth four - so savvy students know that AP courses can raise their GPAs, one of the most important
elements in college admissions.
So many more students are arriving at colleges with a slew of AP courses under their belts that some
institutions have become more choosy about giving them credit. Harvard, for example, no longer gives credit
for scores below 5. And AP classes have spread so widely that the College Board is concerned that some
schools are putting the label on courses that offer a diluted curriculum. So starting next month, it will begin to
audit the 15,000 high schools that offer AP classes to make sure students everywhere get the same quality
of curriculum.
"It's really important that we not give students in traditionally underserved schools a watered-down version of
APs," says Trevor Packer, director of the Advanced Placement program. "This is a massive outreach effort
to help even the playing field."
Despite its explosive growth, only 23 percent of last year's public high school graduates had taken at least
one AP class, he says, adding: "Among those who take AP exams, 1 in 10 students in urban schools score
3 or higher, compared to 6 in 10 in suburban schools."
At many urban schools, superintendents, principals and teachers talk about how the Advanced Placement
program exposes students to new subjects like economics and psychology. They say AP courses help
identify opportunities for those who might otherwise not think of themselves as college material, and help
solve discipline problems when bored students acting up in lower-level classes are put with higher
achievers. Even students who score only a 2 on an exam, or never even take the exam, they say, benefit
from having challenged themselves.
So while high-end schools are capping the number of AP classes a student can take, burnout is less a
concern at schools where exposure to the curriculums is considered a virtue in itself.
"I've had students who made a 2 come back from college and tell me they did really well in freshman English
because they'd been so well prepared by their AP," says Michael Watkins, director of guidance at W.T.
White High School in Dallas, which has the $100 bonuses for successful exam scores. "I used to work at a
suburban high school, all Anglo, where they said no student could handle more than three APs. We have the
opposite view here: They can take as many as they want. I had a student, from Vietnam, who took 20 AP
exams. If they're willing to do the work, our teachers will help them, tutoring before and after school and on
weekends. We had one student who got 60 hours of college credit. That saves a lot of tuition money. And
we're very proud that our AP classes are racially mixed."
One of the most troubling aspects of American education has long been an intractable achievement gap,
with white students outpacing blacks in academic performance, a disparity reflected - and, many say,
caused - by ability-grouping systems that cluster white students in honors classes and minorities at lower
levels. At some racially mixed schools, a peek through classroom doors at skin color is a good indication of
what level the class is. Advanced Placement classes have traditionally been viewed as part of the problem,
but with an open-door policy, some educators say, they can be part of the solution.
In the last 10 years, the number of black students taking AP exams has tripled, to 68,000, and the number of
Latino students has nearly quadrupled, to 151,000. While the percentage of Latinos taking the exam
matches their percentage in the school population (about 13 percent), the percentage of blacks taking the
exam, 5.5 percent, is only a third of the percentage of blacks in the high school population.
For all the excitement in struggling districts, though, it is unclear just how much taking an AP class does to
raise academic achievement, particularly for students who never take the exam. Research shows that good
scores on AP exams are strong predictors of college success. But last year, a study of University of
California freshmen by two Berkeley professors found that the number of AP courses on students'
transcripts bore little or no relationship to their college performance. So, the authors suggested, selective
colleges should reconsider their use of AP enrollment as a make-or-break criterion in admissions. Another
study, in Texas, found that AP classes had no advantage over other kinds of college-prep classes in raising
a student's performance once in college.
In 2002, a committee of the National Research Council, part of the National Academy of Sciences, sharply
criticized AP math and science courses for cramming in too much material at the expense of understanding
and failing to keep up with developments in the subjects. The College Board is now revamping its science
and history courses.
One striking oddity of the Advanced Placement program today is that while many less-than-distinguished
public high schools have open-door policies about who can enroll in AP courses, many academically
superior schools still act as gatekeepers, allowing only top students to enroll. At many suburban and private
schools, students must have good grades or a teacher recommendation or both. And at Stuyvesant and
Bronx Science, the two most competitive public high schools in New York, demand is so great that only
students with the highest grades get into the popular AP classes.
Some of the most academically demanding private schools - among them, in New York, Brearley, Fieldston
and Dalton - take a different approach: They do not offer Advanced Placement, although many of their
students still take the exams.
"At Dalton, advanced classes aren't called APs, but I think most of my grade took AP exams last spring,"
says Nell Hawley, a senior who took three exams last spring and scored 5 on each. "But not having AP
classes at Dalton means that you get to learn for the sake of learning, not taught to the test."
At Friends Seminary, a small New York private school, AP biology was dropped recently in favor of a facultydevised advanced biology course. The change was not a happy one for Audrey Reynolds, the director of
college counseling. "It was much to my chagrin, since 85 to 90 percent of our students were getting a 4 or 5
on the AP bio exam, but our department thought the AP didn't give the extensive lab work we think is
necessary," she says.
While it is the department's job to make that decision, she says, her job is to make sure that colleges accept
the new course on the same basis as the AP Schools typically send course descriptions along with
transcripts so admissions officials can judge a student's achievement level.
At Friends, for each student who takes the new advanced bio course, Reynolds adds a page-and-half
attachment setting forth its track record with AP and the rigors of the new curriculum - and, she says,
"referring to the National Academy of Sciences report that AP bio covered so much material that students
spent the year racing through it rather than getting into depth."
Two seniors at Friends, Eden Wall and Annie Perretta, say they have learned an enormous amount in their
AP courses but wish there had been more room for discussion. Sometimes, they say, the pace can be
overwhelming.
"In our physics AP, we had a test where our whole class did badly, and we asked our teacher if we could
slow down and review," Eden says. "We love our physics teacher, and he understood, but he said we had
so much material to get through before the break that there was no time for review. I think he was as
frustrated as we were."
Lawrence Weschler, director of the New York Institute for the Humanities, became critical of AP courses
based on the experience of his daughter, Sara, who decided on Brown but has deferred enrollment.
"When Sara would go on her college tours, everywhere she went, they said, 'We will be looking to see if you
took every challenging course you could, and that's how you will be judged,' so of course she took as many
as she could," he says, adding that it seemed misguided for high school students to try to place out of
classes they should be looking forward to taking in college.
"Even where the AP courses got the kids excited," Weschler says, "the excitement would immediately be
doused. In European history, the kids got very involved in the causes of World War I and wanted to talk
about it, but the teacher said they couldn't because they had to move on and cover all the material for the
test. And in AP English, in the Pelham school system, the assignment for the poetry unit was to take a poem
home at night and come up with two multiple-choice questions on it that could be on the test."
Many counselors are troubled at the extent to which Advanced Placement has become a weapon in the
college-admissions arsenal, especially when students forgo electives they might have preferred.
"On one hand, many of the classes are ambitious and wonderful, and I'm glad we have them," says Scott
White, a counselor at Montclair High School in New Jersey. "I also understand that colleges have no good
way to consistently assess the highest level kids, and APs can provide an external paradigm for doing that.
But from the student's point of view, there is a horrific rise in the expectations on the part of colleges, almost
a sense that if a student isn't taking the highest level in every course, there's something wrong. So we have
students taking five APs, grinding away at all that memorization in a way that's more appropriate to boot
camp than to kids growing up."
Some schools say there is now a sense that Advanced Placement classes have become inevitable.
"Part of it is that the College Board has done a very good job in marketing their products, working to
increase access and enrollment, and the more students take the APs, the more they perpetuate the idea
that students should take APs," says Emmi Harward, director of college counseling at Hampton Roads
Academy in Newport News, Va.
"Five years ago," she says, "our English and history faculty developed some elective seminar-style courses
for seniors, very rich college-level courses on the ethics of war and the power of myth. Even though the
courses were very appealing, they felt like a risk to some students and parents who know there are colleges
out there that just circle the number of APs on the transcript."
When all is said and done, how important are AP courses in college admissions?
That depends. Certainly, most schools count them in an applicant's favor. One common approach is used at
the State University of New York at Geneseo, where admissions officers tally the number of foreign
language, math and science courses an applicant has taken, along with the number of AP or other
advanced courses. Community college courses, often taken by advanced students in districts that lack an
AP program, count, too, says Kristine Shay, director of undergraduate admissions, but "not exactly on the
same basis, since they don't have that known national curriculum."
SUNY Binghamton takes a different tack. Admissions officers look at the grade point average and SAT
scores, circle the number of AP and honors courses, consider what coursework was available at the high
school and make a nonnumeric judgment: "All things being equal, if we had a kid with an 88 average and
three APs, versus a kid with a 90 average and no APs, we'd probably take the one with the APs - but make it
an 85 average and three APs and I'm stumped," says Cheryl Brown, director of undergraduate admissions.
She adds that almost 100 students arrived on campus this academic year with enough credits for
sophomore standing.
Admissions officers at the most elite colleges say, in almost identical words, that they want students who
have taken "the most rigorous program the school offers" (Marlyn McGrath Lewis, Harvard); "the most
demanding program they can take at their high school" (Karl Furstenberg, Dartmouth); "courses that
challenge them academically" (Jeffrey Brenzel, Yale); and "the most challenging program that's available
and that they can handle" (Richard Nesbitt, Williams).
"We don't expect students to take every AP that's offered, but if their school has 15 APs and they've avoided
them all, that would certainly say something," Nesbitt says.
While admissions officers acknowledge that taking the most difficult AP courses, like Calculus BC, indicates
a strong academic background, they take pains to say that there is no magic, no numeric formula - and no
penalty for students from schools that do not have an AP program.
"Sheer AP firepower, having 10 APs, doesn't impress us," says Brenzel. "It's just one factor in evaluating a
student's background and preparation."
Not too long ago, Hackensack High School set its best students on an honors track that included few
minorities, though two-thirds of the student body is black and Hispanic. But a summer tutoring program that
began last year has helped ambitious students move into Advanced Placement and pre-AP classes, which
are now inching closer to the school's overall racial mix.
"I push it with all the parents, some of whom still think about APs as an elite thing," says Mark Porto, the
principal. "I had an African-American mother come in, upset that her son had been suspended. He's a bright
boy and I told her that what we really should be talking about was why he wasn't taking any APs."
In the AP American history class, Hackensack students read excerpts from J.P. Morgan, Theodore
Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, analyzing their tones for clues as to whom these leaders were trying to
reach and whom they wanted to protect, while placing the writings in the broader social context of the
emerging progressive and consumer movements.
Many in the class have always been among the school's top performers, but others, like Theo Idigo, entered
the AP world through the summer program, where the same teacher helped prepare him.
"I never thought about APs until my brother went away to college, and started telling me how I should take
as many APs, as many difficult courses, as I could, because that would help me prepare for college," he
says, adding that he hopes to apply to Princeton, Temple and elsewhere. "Now I think they're good."
In an English literature AP, Hackensack students work in small groups, as their teacher floats from table to
table, asking questions: "Who's speaking in this poem, and who's he talking to?" she asks. "He's a farmer,
right? Is he an educated man? No. And what kind of imagery is he using? Right, animal imagery. And why?
Because that's what he knows. And what do you think is his attitude toward his wife?"
Slowly, the students tease out the story: This is an older farmer, married to a very young woman who
remains scared and distant from him, and he longs for closeness. "They probably met online," a student
says.
Marc Paulo Guzman, Hackensack's top-ranked senior, takes the literature class, along with AP biology and
AP calculus. "I wish there were more APs offered," he says. "They're fast-paced, and you learn a lot." Marc,
whose family emigrated from the Philippines in 1993, is applying to Princeton, Yale and Duke. "I've done a
lot of research about college on the Internet," he says, "and I know APs can help you get in."