The AP quandary and how to resolve it
Chester E. Finn, Jr., Michael J. Petrilli:
It’s hard to feel sorry for the College Board, so let’s not. But let’s also try to understand an enormous dilemma that this enormous organization faces.
The Advanced Placement program is its biggest revenue generator and, along with the SAT, its showpiece. But where the SAT is little more than a measuring-and-comparison tool, the AP operation has long served as an indicator of educational quality and performance, often seen as the “gold standard” of high school achievement.
We at Fordham haven’t always gone quite that far. Our big review of AP and the much smaller International Baccalaureate (IB) program back in 2007 concluded that “AP and IB deserve most of the esteem in which they are held. Parts of the two programs are 24-karat…while others are less pure…. But they’re mostly gold and mostly worthy of emulation.”
We’ve been defenders and advocates for AP in the years since—and have sometimes declared without reservation that it is indeed a “gold standard.” One of us co-authored a well-received book that praised AP while also calling attention to the challenges it faces.
The challenges—and challengers—have, for decades now, included much debate over whether AP continues to deserve anything like a “gold standard” reputation. Or has it succumbed to “dumbing down” and “inflating up” like so much of the rest of American education, both K–12 and higher? (See this new Education Next article by John Moscatiello for the evidence of AP’s drift from excellence.)
We recognize some compelling reasons why it shouldsuccumb. Three come quickly to mind.
First and foremost, if “passing” an AP exam (traditionally a score of 3 or higher on a 5-point scale) is tantamount to passing an introductory college course in that subject—hence the long-standing expectation that one would be awarded credit upon arrival within the ivy gates—and demonstrating readiness to succeed in a more challenging college course in the same subject, then how should the College Board respond to the plain fact that it’s getting easier and easier to pass those college courses, indeed to get honors grades in them? Should the Board make it harder to pass a college-level course than the colleges do? Bear in mind that 19 of its 31 trustees have day jobs in higher ed, often engaged in “enrollment management” for individual institutions.
