By Vanessa Lim

The original story was posted on December 12, 2023. Here is the original link.

The following column is a student opinion and does not represent the views of Maury High School.

Advanced Placement (AP) classes, created by the College Board, are a major asset for students, but they have also become a point of weakness and pressure for many.

AP classes bolster a student’s GPA, but their integrity and long-term educational value are questionable.

The College Board created AP classes to provide high school students across the country with the opportunity to take rigorous courses and earn college credits. The fast-paced curriculum and in depth discussions in AP classes are superior to regular and honors courses.

“In AP courses there [are] more reading, more writing, more critical thinking, and you end up surrounded by teachers and students that make you think more,” says Mr. Shaffer, who has taught AP classes at Maury for ten years.

AP classes also hold a high value status in college admissions because they are heavily weighted and allow students to achieve over 4.0 GPAs.

“A lot of colleges are looking for AP courses because it has become the standard for high-level classes,” says Emmet Moorhouse, ranked second in the senior class of 2024 at Maury.

With this in mind, high-achieving students take more AP classes, bolstering their transcript as much as possible.

“Students get into what I call a grades arms race,” says Mr. Mansel, a six-year AP class teacher at Maury and five-year AP exam grader. “ We have lost sight of the vision. The vision is to apprehend new knowledge so that we can gain skills and be flexible in the workforce in the future, not so that we can have a giant GPA.”

Passing an AP exam and receiving college credit are the most advertised components of AP classes. So students and teachers focus on memorizing the AP exam rubric instead of learning the content.

“With standardized tests, it’s human nature to start teaching towards the test,” says Mansell. “Tests create an atmosphere of urgency to move through everything and may not allow a lot of deeper conversations to happen.”

The integrity of the class is questionable when its sole purpose becomes studying for a single test. Teaching towards the test does diminish the quality of the course material, but it causes long-term issues for students. Public school has instilled a pass or fail mindset into students, making them believe that success is measured by test scores and grades. This narrow mindset does not prepare students for their future. AP tests only further contribute to this problem because AP students chase after passing exam scores and college credit like a carrot on a stick.

Shaffer says that, while earning his masters degree in global and international education, his research revealed that many of his past students who took a lot of AP classes “felt that AP classes weren’t as beneficial as advertised” when it came to earning college credit. This is a reality for many. Students can maintain an A in the class, but if they don’t earn a 3–5 on the exam, they don’t earn the college credit.

The College Board has made recent efforts to close an achievement gap by pushing for low-income and minority students to take AP classes. While the opportunity to earn college credits in high school is appealing for low-income students, a New York Times study shows that 60% of them score a 1–2 on the exam; which does not qualify for college credit with a majority of universities.

However, this initiative generated nearly $500 million in revenue for the College Board in 2022.

One of the College Board’s most valuable assets is the SAT, but since most colleges have switched to being test optional, the College Board has gone from making $403.6 million from the SAT to $289.6 million, per the New York Times.

Expanding the target audience for AP classes is their way to recover the lost revenue. Under the cover of equality and promoting diversity, the College Board earns more money.

The College Board pushes the idea that even without a passing score, students that take AP classes are more likely to attend college. However, there is no actual evidence behind this claim. A 2023 George Washington University study reveals that AP classes often promote interest in subjects but make students less confident in their future success in college due to the high stress and lower grades.

AP classes foster critical thinking and a good work ethic, but they also can make or break students’ education. It’s hard to believe it is right to put a billion dollar corporation at the center of a student’s academic future.