Color me cynical as well - it's all about the money!
For the record, I am vehemently against eliminating college credit for AP.
Of course, if I am trying to support their point of view, here are my observations:
Too many lower ability/achievement high school students are taking AP courses, which tend to lower the rigor of these classes. Too many of these same students are taking the AP exams, which lowers the actual standards of the AP scores because the AP exams are curved. Aside from AP Physics C, AP Calculus is probably the most objectively accepted AP credits. However, the standards for earning even a 5 on AP Calculus AB is ridiculously low and disturbingly more so for BC, which according to DS requires not much more than half the points. My kids are taking the AP American Government exam without benefit of the AP course. While they are at a disadvantage due to not having covered all the topics in their freshman Am Govt course, the standards for even a 5 are low enough that they should not have any problems with just a couple of practices. I don't remember what they told me but I think it might have been around 75 percent for a 5 on a recent exam.
