Here in the UK, all high school exams are set by exam boards, which are independent of the schools (the schools get a choice and can offer exams from a mixture of exam boards - so if one exam board is messing up too badly schools can just choose another).<p>That seems like common sense to me - it makes sure anyone looking at someone's grades knows an A from a poor inner city school is the same as an A from the most prestigious private school. How else would you stop standards getting out of alignment at different schools and across the country?
I can only speak as someone who has gone through (the pain that was) High School, including many AP courses but I have to strongly disagree with this article.<p>> I usually use phrases like "society doesn't trust" but let's personalize it this time – for parents, think about whether or not you trust your kids teachers? Do you a large private, unaccountable organization more?<p>In my experience College Board is infinitely more accountable than any of the teachers. The AP tests are graded anonymously, with graders blinded to student and school. I've literally had teachers give me different credit for nearly the same work as another student because they "just didn't get the feeling I understood the material" or some thinly veiled attempt at saying the didn't like me. Looking back I wouldn't trust some of my teachers to wash my car let alone determine my future.<p>> You trust your child's teacher with your child's well being every day but you don't trust him to say whether or not your kid knows calculus?<p>If your kid can't take care of his own well-being by High School you've failed as a parent. If you think it's your job to take care of your student's well-being, you've failed as a teacher. You're supposed to teach them, not change their diapers.<p>> Then you teach the class and in May, one to two months before the end of the semester the kids take the AP exam - you don't see results until the summer.<p>This is the only point I can partially agree with. Having your entire score come down to one test adds a lot of variables, but in the age of testing this isn't just limited to APs. Thankfully there's enough data you send to college that a single bad data point doesn't hurt too much. And if you really understand the material, retaking a course isn't that bad.
It's worth noting that the author here seems to be a teacher.<p>One design feature of AP classes is to indeed remove some discretion from teachers. This is a drawback when you have amazing teachers, and a godsend if you have bad or just plain lazy teachers. This is the same pattern as checks-and-balances vs dictators.<p>Since APs are a control mechanism for teachers then, I would take the article's opinion of APs with a grain of salt. A much more neutral party would be that of a student: a bad test causes pain similar to a bad teacher.<p>The good news about the student point of view is that most people here can draw from personal experience -- real data.<p>He cites an AP Calc teacher who was really stellar but got punished by not covering enough material by the time of the AP test.<p>In your experience, what fraction reflects that AP Calc example above (where discretion is used well at the detriment of the test), and what fraction reflect teachers using discretion badly (and getting caught by the test)? For me the ratio is like 1:3 if not 1:5.<p>I am open to the idea that there may be good ways to give teachers more discretion in positive ways, but I think it really needs to be acknowledged that APs exist in the first place to solve a problem, a problem that can't just be waved away without convincing data that show an alternative system performs better.
I wish more of my children's education required two well-qualified parties to agree before being implemented.<p>That doesn't mean I trust either party more than the other; it means I want two people to sign off on major decisions, without me having to judge which is more credible.
All well and good if your kids are from a school known to the admissions department at the colleges they are applying to, otherwise the AP courses, with all their flaws, are a reasonable compromise that gets them college credit.<p>My kids took a different route when faced with a truly incompetent high school calculus teacher. My wife convinced the high school to allow them to take courses at the local community college for both high school and college credit. The courses were approved by the University of California so there was no issue about transfer of credits.