J. David Goodman's story in the New York Times last week about the new Advanced Placement policy at two high schools in New Jersey at first made me cringe.
His lead paragraph read: "Students enrolled in Advanced Placement classes at two schools in the Northern Valley Regional High School District in Bergen County are now required to take the AP exams this month -- or receive a failing grade in the courses under a new school policy being questioned by some parents and students."
Take the AP exam or you flunk the course? It seemed un-American. U.S. high schools are famously forgiving of students who don't want to subject themselves to the three-hour college level exams at the end of AP courses. Most leave it up to the student. Some remove the AP designation on their transcript if they don't take the exam. In a few areas, such as Northern Virginia, the schools require that all AP students take the AP exams in May, but if they decide at the last minute to spend those lovely days at the beach, the only penalty is they don't get the extra grade-point credit for taking an advanced course. To a senior who has already been admitted to college by May, that has no more sting than a disappointed look from his mother.
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