Q&A of the Day – Has the College Board Lowered AP Standards?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.
Today’s Entry: I have tutored a particular student throughout all four years of high school, a private high school in south FL. She is given double time due to her anxieties and since the pandemic, her AP classes allow her to complete her essays at home WITH HER TUTOR. AP classes fuel our country’s ongoing dilemma of inflated grades. Furthermore, within the history department, yes, the liberal minded agenda is disturbing.
The better question is how many who take the course pass the exam at the end of the year (this exam is to be monitored in school… but who knows). I don’t believe any of the flawed data of graduation rates etc; everything is politically motivated!!
Bottom Line: The insight into the inner workings of what’s becoming allowable by the College Board for AP courses is telling and appreciated. You pose a great question about pass rates for AP courses generally. Has the seemingly woke College Board watered down the theoretically elite Advanced Placement courses so that they’re now easier to pass? In attempting to answer this question there’s a certain inexact science to it. In theory, students who take AP courses are especially high performers who’re looking to gain a jump start on college with AP credit earned for passing the courses. On the other hand, as I mentioned earlier this week, just over half of high school seniors in schools which offer AP courses currently take at least one course. That alone suggests that perhaps the programs aren’t as rigorous as they once were.
According to the College Board the benefits of taking AP courses & Exams are:
- Stand Out to Colleges “AP” on your high school transcript shows colleges you're motivated to succeed, and taking the exam demonstrates your commitment to tackle and complete college-level work.
- Earn College Credit and Placement Your AP score could earn you college credits before you even set foot on campus. In fact, most AP students who enroll in four-year colleges start school with some credit.
- Boost Your GPA Most high schools offer a GPA boost to students who take AP—be sure to check with your school for more information.
So, the potential benefits to students who perform well in AP courses has remained the same, so what about the courses themselves?
The first major tell that AP courses may not be as rigorous as they once were came in the form of what the College Board did to overhaul the SATs. In 2014 the College Board announced a “redesign” of the SAT making the essay optional, adding 50 minutes to the time to take the SAT. The Board also emphasized the need to for the tests to be more inclusive citing lower rates of many minority students opting to take the test along with lower overall scores. Specific to AP courses, recent changes which tie into what you cited in your example, include:
- In 2016 the College Board issued a “Equity and Access Policy”, which changed course material to help boost minority participation and pass rates
- In 2020 the College Board allowed students to take exams at home in an open-book format
So, what has the impact been and have AP courses become watered down? For this exercise I’ve first pulled the pass rates from ten years ago, prior to the wholesale course changes, and will compare them to the most recent results.
- 2013: 60.5% of students received a qualifying score
- 2022: 74% of students received a qualifying score
That’s a 22% increase in qualifying scores, or those required for potential college credit, since the changes to the program were made. Now in attempting to infer whether the courses have been watered down I’ll compare those results to average ACT and SAT scores over the same years.
- 2013: Average SAT Score: 1,010; Average ACT Score: 20.9
- 2022: Average SAT Score: 1,050; Average ACT Score: 19.8
This is interesting for two reasons. First, AP qualifying scores increased by 22% over a period in which SAT scores only improved by 4%. That alone would suggest that there’s something to the bar being lowered for AP courses. But then there’s the comparison to ACT scores. ACT scores declined by 5% over the same time. Remember, the College Board administers the SAT in addition to the AP courses. This analysis rather conclusively illustrates that the College Board’s lowering of standards in recent years has significantly propped up AP course grades and to a lesser extent SAT scores while there’s what appears to have been an actual overall decline in relative academic performance by students.