Q&A of the Day – How Many Students Take AP Classes
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s Entry: Brian, it seems to me the whole AP thing is overblown on both sides. Most students never enter these courses and I believe many schools still don’t even offer them. My high school didn’t have them.
Bottom Line: Well, regardless of how long it's been since you were in school, you’re right on both accounts. Most students don’t take any AP courses and yes, some high schools don’t offer them either. However, when you narrow that down to high school graduates specifically, and within schools that offer the programs it paints a different picture. A lot has changed over the years with AP programs.
The current standoff between the state of Florida and the College Board, the non-profit behind the creation and implementation of AP courses, in addition to SATs, has created national conversation about the Board, AP courses and how they’re created...which is probably a good thing. After all, how often is doing the same thing the way it's always been done an ongoing best practice? In the private sector competition is constantly challenging the status quo, but in the public sector, when taxpayer money is involved, not-so-much. While school vouchers and Florida’s recently proposed Universal School Choice program, to be considered in the upcoming state legislative session, are huge steps in a more competitive direction which should serve students and parents best over the long run, there never has been a challenge posed to the College Board which creates the SATs and AP programs. That is until Governor DeSantis hinted at one on Monday. Question for you. What is the College Board?
If you don’t have an answer to that question don’t feel bad, you’re not alone. The College Board is a nonprofit founded in New York City in 1899 by representatives from 12 universities and three high school prep academies. From there they set out to create standardized tests, systems and courses which could be implemented in high schools for the purpose of cross measurement, college prep and college placement. This culminated into what the first eventual staple in the lives of high-school students seeking higher education – the SAT which was established in 1926. Broadly accepted for college entrance by the education establishment, they next rolled out another staple in our lives that’s the subject of debate right now. AP courses. The first Advanced Placement courses were established in 1952. The adaptation to them was much slower as schools had to account for those programs in addition to having teachers to staff them. Over the decades though, they caught on and the first answer to one of your questions is 70%. As in, you’re right, not all high schools currently offer AP courses. Approximately 70% currently do.
In answer to the question about how many students currently take AP courses. The number is now (pre & post pandemic) 2.6 million+ per year. On a percentage basis, nearly 35% of high school graduates now take at least one AP Exam. Given that close to a third of high schools don’t offer the courses, what we see is that over half of all high school graduates in schools which offer them do have exposure to these courses. Based on your note that’s probably a surprise. And it’s a fairly recent phenomenon. While AP courses have been around for over 70 years, the use of them has proliferated in recent years. The total number of students taking AP courses doubled between 2006 and 2017. Some of that was brought about by an expanded offering of courses which grew from a few in the early years to a total of 38 different courses today – not counting the recently proposed African American Studies Course which has been at the root of the controversy in Florida.
So, is this overblown from the perspective of the state’s side? I don’t think so. First, as taxpayers, we shouldn’t be forced to pay taxes for schools, which most Floridians already never use, that pay for courses that contain blatant propaganda and falsehoods. Is it overblown from the College Board suggesting they’ve been slandered by the state, despite admitting errors within the program as originally offered? There was a key tell in the letter they sent to the state Saturday night in which they alleged slander. It was this:
We deeply regret not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent comments, that African American Studies “lacks educational value.” Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field.
That last line is the key. They don’t deeply regret putting out Marxist propaganda packaged as an AP course. They deeply regret not standing up for those who put it together. That jumped out at me in part because when this first broke, I covered who the lead curator of this course was. A BLM activist who serves as a Northwestern University Professor of African American Studies. And if a BLM activist created this particular AP course it caused me to wonder who created the other courses (along with what material is in those courses). And this points back to the big picture that DeSantis questioned which has caused a stir in establishment circles.
Here you have a board founded by academia 124 years ago and run by academia today that’s headquartered in New York City. What do you think the educational perspective and proclivities of these individuals happens to be? Are we certain the products they’re putting out are the best possible educational materials to prepare our children for life in the real world? Are we certain the way they’ve always done things is the best way for our children to learn today? All Governor DeSantis had to do is raise those questions and you’ve seen the education establishment and their equally antiquated allies in news reporting flip out. Real thinkers and high performers regularly question the status quo as a means of determining whether there’s a better way to do things. Every piece of technology in your life is a byproduct of it. Ironically the alleged high thinkers in education want no part of it. What does that tell you?