Take That AP Test or Flunk

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.

Yet here were Old Tappan and Demarest high schools, well-regarded public institutions in affluent neighborhoods, cruelly flunking students who didn't show up. For juniors hoping to be accepted to a prestigious college, that could be the kiss of death. Even seniors risked having colleges withdraw letters of acceptance when they saw that black mark on their final transcript. Even worse, the two schools were going to make those students pay the $84-per-test fees, unlike Northern Virginia, where the districts pay that tab in return for requiring all students to appear.

This struck me as bad publicity for the AP program, which is already seen by some educators as a corporate, mindless, stress-inducing monster being pushed by the College Board just to make money. It was also a problem for me, an unashamed advocate of both AP and the similar International Baccalaureate and Cambridge programs as great ways to save our high schools from academic stupor. Next week, Newsweek is scheduled to publish its annual Top High Schools list, based on my system of assessing schools by AP, IB and Cambridge test participation. (If your school gave at least as many tests as it had graduating seniors last year, and hasn't sent in its Newsweek form yet, e-mail me quick at mathewsj@washpost.com.) Flunking students who didn't take the AP exam seemed a bit harsh.

Then I had a conversation with Jan Furman, the district superintendent, and she changed my mind. Her strongest point was the abysmal test participation rate her two schools have had up to now. Only 49 percent of AP students last year at Old Tappan and Demarest took the AP tests. I could excuse that large number of no-shows in an inner-city school full of kids who were frightened by AP, couldn't afford the fee and didn't think they would do very well. But fewer than 1 percent of the students at Old Tappan and Demarest are from low-income families, making their public schools among the most affluent in the country. Overall in New Jersey, 69 percent of AP students took the AP tests in 2007. Nationally, the figure was even higher, 75 percent. The majority of those students were not nearly as well off as the residents of the Northern Valley Regional High School District in Bergen County.

The New York Times story quoted one Demarest mother, with a daughter taking five AP courses, who called the policy "beyond the pale" and "punitive." The presumptive valedictorian at Demarest, who is taking six tests this month, told the newspaper that school officials did not listen to the substance of a student protest he organized.

But Furman said she and her staff thought through all of the possible objections and concluded that because the final exam was designed to be an integral part of the course, it ought to be required. If a student blew off the final in any of her other courses, she would likely get an F. Why should the most challenging courses be any different?

What if students can't afford the $84, I asked. Furman said the schools would pay the fees for anyone in need. What if they were in the hospital? Accommodations could be made, she said, as they are in difficult circumstances for other AP students across the country.

Furman's insistence on the importance of the exam is unassailable. I first learned about AP while hanging around a school in East Los Angeles, Garfield High. Those AP teachers used the coming exam as the prime motivator. They explained to the students, mostly kids whose parents had dropped out of grade school in Mexico, that this was a college-level exam that could earn them college credit. The exam was written and graded by outside experts, and could not, like most high school exams, be dumbed-down to make sure nobody got a bad grade. That daunting fact transformed the dynamic of those classes. It was no longer students vs. teacher, with each kid trying to get away with the best grades for the least effort. Instead it was students and teacher together, working as a team .

Many AP students at Old Tappan and Demarest have missed out on that experience. The school administrators and parents also have been denied a chance to assess the talents of teachers by seeing how they do in preparing all of their students for the exams. Instead, Furman said, many students have enjoyed the privilege of putting AP courses on their transcripts without doing AP level work. They have also been swayed, she said, by silly rumors. One of the most nonsensical, she said, was a report that any student who took an AP test in high school would be required to take the next level course in college, even if he or she was unsure of the material.

Furman said school officials announced two years ago that the new policy would take hold this year. She said about 30 people raised objections, and so far this month no one has missed any of the exams.

I imagine if I were in Furman's job I would not have had the intestinal fortitude to tell students they would fail the course if they didn't take the exam. I might have tried less aggressive methods, like the teacher-written AP tests some schools require of students who don't sign up for the real tests.

But it will be interesting to see how a tough approach to slacker habits in a comfortable community works out for teachers, students and parents. As far as I know, nobody has yet died, or even been seriously injured, from taking an AP test. Many students may find the experience invigorating, and they may be glad those heartless administrators made them do it.