Jonathan Pan took nine Advanced Placement tests while in high
school and was able to start at UCLA with enough credit to assure
that he will finish his bachelor’s degree in four years.
“I think APs help a lot. If you don’t have the
background, it seems like you are one step behind everyone
else,” said Pan, a first-year chemical engineering
student.
But if Pan had graduated from a private high school, he may not
have had those credits.
In recent years, a growing number of private high schools have
chosen to discontinue or change their honors courses which had been
geared toward AP tests, but educators disagree on how the trend
will affect the preparedness of incoming students.
Margaret Matzinger Tchakerian, assistant director of academic
counseling for the UCLA College, said medical schools usually do
not accept AP credit, and they prefer that their applicants to take
science classes at the university.
Tchakerian said, in her experience, students who are successful
in AP classes are well prepared for classes at UCLA.
“It is hard to tell though whether that is because of the
groundwork that has been laid in the AP courses in high school or
simply because students with high AP scores tend to be highly
motivated,” she said.
Most recently, Crossroads High School in Santa Monica announced
May 2 in a letter to parents that it would discontinue teaching its
current AP curriculum dictated by the College Board, which
administers the test.
Bob Riddle, assistant head master, said the current curriculum
does not go deep enough into the information that could be covered
on the AP test.
“Even now, about one-third of our students in the AP
classes decide not to take the test,” he said.
Crossroads joins the ranks with prestigious northeastern private
schools to create their own coursework for their AP programs.
“We are a highly selective school. Our own curriculum is
presented at a collegiate level, and we choose what is most
interesting, valuable and necessary for our students,” said
Mark Delandy, director of studies at Phillips Exeter Academy in New
Hampshire.
John Rogers, from the UCLA School of Education, is emphatic
about the importance for students to have AP experience to enter
successfully into universities such as UCLA.
As assistant director of the Institute of Democracy and
Educational Access, Rogers has testified as an expert witness in a
lawsuit where a student sued to have access to AP science courses
her Inglewood high school did not offer. He has done extensive
research into the use of AP scores in admissions.
“These scores are imperative for students to be
competitive to enter schools like UCLA. Private schools may be
making these decisions because AP is no longer a signifier. These
tests are being given more universally; they need to conserve their
marketability to get their students to stand out,” Rogers
said.
According to the College Board Web site, nearly 60 percent of
all high schools in the nation offer some AP classes, and in 2004,
nearly 1.9 million exams were given to more than 1.1 million
students.
The test scores are then sent to universities all over the
country. UCLA receives the most scores from prospective students of
all the UCs and is third in receiving scores in the nation.
At UCLA, 12 percent of the 2004 entering freshman class
graduated from private high schools.
For admissions, however, AP scores are primarily used for
calculating applicants’ GPAs, and the subjects of each test
are not necessarily considered individually. Ravi Poorsina, UC
spokeswoman, said they will accept a maximum of four honors points,
which would allow a B grade in an honors class to count as an A in
a normal class.
“The limit levels the playing field; not all high schools
offer the same number of AP classes,” Poorsina said.
But Fred Seigal, an experienced AP Biology teacher at Venice
High School, a public institution, enjoys a very high pass rate and
is confident in the program he teaches.
“The true reason why many private schools shun the APs is
that they allow comparative accountability. If a private school
can’t offer as many AP courses, outstanding teachers, nor
achieve passing rate success, maybe they aren’t so elite
after all,” said Seigal.
Riddle was undaunted by criticism that Crossroads or other
private schools fear verifiable comparison. “We don’t
compare our scores to other schools. We have never had a
test-driven curriculum. We do not even support the
“˜standardized test, No Child Left Behind’ movement. We
just aim to offer the best for our students,” he said.