Last updated May 13, 2002
Advanced Placement Courses and the International Baccalaureate Program are major undertakings for the entire school community. There are legitimate concerns. This section attempts to address these issues.
| Q1 | AP and IB may not fit into the Coalition of Essential School's 10 basic principles. |
| R1 | The 10 principles of CES include obtaining and demonstrating knowledge depth. AP and IB require this. Most CES high schools across the nation offer AP or IB. See the following link: link. Thomas Jefferson High School's IB Coordinator submitted the following letter describing how IB and the CES principles correlate. |
| Q2 | AP courses and exams are difficult to implement in a 4x4 block schedule school. |
| R2 | East coast schools do have the advantage since their school year ends before the AP exams in May. However, there are many 4x4 schools that have found a solution. See the following link for a list: link . The primary solutions are: 1) Schools such as Santa Cruz High School in Santa Cruz California teach what is normally a full year of class material (at a 6 period schedule school) in a semester. AP courses are also taught in a semester. 2) Moses Lake High School in Moses Lake Washington uses a full year and a full block period to teach AP courses. 3) Buffalo Gap High School in Swoope, Virginia uses a full year with a half block period to teach AP courses. 4) Other schools, such as Wasson High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, have 4 quarters (9 weeks each). They use the first 3 quarters to teach the more demanding AP courses. Other AP courses are taught in 2 quarters (a semester). |
| Q3 | Only the top students benefit from AP and IB. |
| R3 | Most AP and IB teachers teach both advanced and regular classes. They usually end up introducing the advanced material to their regular classes improving the academics of the entire school. See the following article: link . |
| Q4 | The school already offers Honors Classes and the Running Start program. |
| R4 | These offerings are good but generally not at the same high level as AP and IB. See the following link: link . Many out of state colleges only recognize AP and IB among the possible advanced courses. |
| Q5 | What are the costs? |
| R5 | There are costs to the students, school, and district. See the following link for details: link . 90% of the costs of AP or IB to low imcome students are covered by state grants. |
| Q6 | What teacher training and resources are available? What teacher qualifications are required? |
| R6 | The AP Central web site has a plethora of information on teacher and school resources on teaching Advanced Placement Courses. Teacher and administrator professional development courses and workshops are held throughout the year. The workshops include subject matter vertical teams that span the middle school and high school years. |
| Q7 | Not enough students are willing to take AP and IB courses. Class sizes will be too small to justify these programs. |
| R7 | Participation in these programs is low (10-20%) at some schools. At other schools, such as Thomas Jefferson High School in Auburn, Washington, over half of the student population (650 out of 1200) participate in one or more AP or IB courses. At Jackson High School in 2001, 90 students applied to the 9th grade honors block course. A quota was used and only 30 students were admitted. |
| Q8 | What can parents do? |
| R87 |
1) Educate yourself about AP and IB. |