Florida schools will not stop offering Advanced Placement classes, whatever Gov. Ron DeSantis suggests.
With other rigorous options, such as International Baccalaureate and Cambridge,“it is not clear to me that this particular operator (College Board) is the one that is going to be needed in the future,” said DeSantis, who also mentioned dual-enrollment programs that let high school students take college classes.
AP is way too entrenched to be dropped, and most of the classes don't have the political baggage of the new AP African American Studies class. So, why does the ambitious governor think trolling College Board is politically smart? I don't know.
DeSantis has bragged about the number of students in AP in the past, writes Jeffrey S. Solochek in the Tampa Bay Times. Florida encourages AP participation by paying exam fees, paying a bonus to teachers whose students pass the AP exam and counting exam success as part of the high school accountability system. "Last year, it budgeted $4 million to prepare teachers for the courses as a way to improve minority student participation and success in Advanced Placement as required."
Florida also funds dual enrollment programs, which are growing rapidly but do not serve as many students as AP.
Could Florida drop the SAT? I don't see it.
Department of Education officials have hinted in social media that the Classic Learning Test, or CLT, could be an alternative to College Board's SAT tests, writes Solochek.
Popular with homeschooled students and students at schools that teach classics, CLT is similar to the SAT, writes Ashley Robinson on PrepScholar. However, reading passages are taken from literature, such as Ann Bronte's Agnes Grey, and the math test includes more logic questions. Here's a sample test.
"So, why does the ambitious governor think trolling College Board is politically smart? I don't know. "
Because it will get him a few good slots on Fox et. al.
Murdoch used his God given talents to so much betterment of the world with his Page 3 Girl of the UK The Sun.
Since nipples wouldn't fly in America, he has his "news" operations titillate us with fake anger.
CB is a scourge. Letting them write de facto national curriculum was a grievous error. the claims that the other courses aren't problematic is false. APUSH is a disaster of wokeness as is their geography, world history, literature courses, and env science. Their calculus tests are now 40% calculator based and students no longer compute any definite integrals or derivatives at a point. The calculator does, and they simply read the answer. Chem is similarly wrecked.
DeSantis did NOT even suggest the ending of AP courses in Florida. You will NOT find a single primary source that shows otherwise. This "controversy" was made from whole cloth.
How about going to the primary source and report on the specific issues DeSantis had with AP African American History. When and if you do, you will more than likely agree with every one of his objections...objections that the College Board saw as legitimate which the CB then modified the content to the satisfaction of Governor DeSantis.
This is an ideological repeat of the fake news on the "Don't Say Gay" law. When I directed my fellow teachers to the actual text of that law they were shocked to se…
In all fairness, DeSantis *does* have a legitimate point: the College Board has a de facto monopoly on this sort of testing, and that's not particularly healthy. Surely it would be preferable to have a range of options. For the SAT, there *is* an alternative in the ACT, and nobody thinks that's in any way undesirable. Why not the same for the AP exams?
To be clear, I think that the College Board has done a fantastic job with AP exams, and they have achieved their monopoly status by delivering value. Outside of the controversy on APAAS, there doesn't seem to be any objection to these tests, and lots of students are eager to take them. Good for the College…
The University of Florida still requires an SAT/ACT test and according to their web site, two years of a foreign language in high school.
https://admissions.ufl.edu/apply/freshman/requirements