Any time you try to compare college applicants by looking at their high school records, which is something college admission offices have to do every admission season, you run into the problem of high school courses not being particularly comparable. That has been true even with the brand name labels "AP" and "IB." The Advanced Placement program caught on not because of school districts like Scarsdale, but because of school districts elsewhere around the United States whose students had trouble making the case that they were ready for tough colleges. Some families, including homeschooling families like mine, really appreciate an opportunity for bright young people to test in what is somewhat like a British A-level system to show what they know.
(Historically, the Advanced Placement program began in the 1950s when prep school students no longer automatically were placed in the same small group of elite colleges. Some prep school students went to pretty good, but not tip-top, colleges and found out they were repeating in college work that they had already done in high school. The AP tests, which began in such subjects as French and chemistry, gave such students a chance to get placed into higher-level college courses that wouldn't repeat what they already learned in high school.)
I'm all for pluralism, so it's fine by me if one school district or another either decides to offer AP courses or decides to NOT offer AP courses. Note that the policy of the College Board is to make AP tests available to homeschoolers and self-studiers of all kinds, so, as the linked article notes, some students in high schools without AP courses still take AP tests.
What would a school district like that say if federal curriculum guidelines became more comprehensive and specified, say, high school level science education standards in much greater detail?
(Historically, the Advanced Placement program began in the 1950s when prep school students no longer automatically were placed in the same small group of elite colleges. Some prep school students went to pretty good, but not tip-top, colleges and found out they were repeating in college work that they had already done in high school. The AP tests, which began in such subjects as French and chemistry, gave such students a chance to get placed into higher-level college courses that wouldn't repeat what they already learned in high school.)
I'm all for pluralism, so it's fine by me if one school district or another either decides to offer AP courses or decides to NOT offer AP courses. Note that the policy of the College Board is to make AP tests available to homeschoolers and self-studiers of all kinds, so, as the linked article notes, some students in high schools without AP courses still take AP tests.
What would a school district like that say if federal curriculum guidelines became more comprehensive and specified, say, high school level science education standards in much greater detail?