Advanced Placement May Not be so Advanced
Inflated resumes for college applications are a trend of the current age. Students are forced to compete with the best of the best and spend most of their high school careers building their appeal. With college application rates soaring and less students being accepted, the pressure is growing for high school hopefuls. Advanced Placement courses were created for students performing at superior levels and soon became a status symbol on applications. But with more and more students taking these exclusive classes questions are raised about the validity of the course content as “advanced”.
Since the creation of Advanced Placement courses there has been no significant increase in high school standardized testing scores. It would seem that students studying more rigorous material would score higher than their counter-parts in “average” classrooms. A recent study by the Federal Department of Education demonstrates that participation in Advanced Placement coursework does not indicate a measureable higher level of learning for most students.