I totally agree with notsogifted. CC classes here are definitely not at the AP level, at least from what I’ve heard, and many of the DE classes offered at our hs, through a couple different 4-year universities, both public and private, are considered to be less rigorous by the students, and usually chosen by the kids looking for a lighter class.

I think a lot of the criticisms Val pointed out may be teacher or district-specific things. My kids both found our calculus BC class to be easy and too slow-moving for their tastes. There was summer homework, but for this class it was review problems (tons of them) and my kids just didn’t do them (thankfully they weren’t graded). The class included group projects with some writing and presentations, that involved practical applications of calculus which were challenging and interesting, definitely requiring upper-level thinking. My DD was able to place out of the first two semesters of calc in college and was well-prepared for the math class she was placed in.

I also agree that the foreign language and English lit classes, while a lot of work, were valuable and well-taught. Again, allowed my DD to place out of fl requirements and into upper-level courses in fl. This was not true in English lit, despite earning a 5, but I don’t think this class is college-level, so I’m not complaining. It was still the best class choice available to my kids at their hs, including DE courses.

I also think the focus on the exam must really vary. For my kids, the only APs where the exam was directly practiced for were in history, particularly world history. There were good aspects to the history courses, primarily the readings and seminars, as well as research projects, but the focus on s specific essay format and time-requirements was a waste of time and frustrating to my kids. However, even this was teacher-specific- my kids had to do it, but there are teachers at our school who teach AP history without any of that and from both classes seem to do equally well on the exam. It’s just a pity more teachers aren’t confident enough to teach the material the way they think it should be done.

Overall, I agree that in many cases these are not college level classes, and am therefore not surprised that most of my kids’ APs won’t get them any credits. But I don’t think CC and the DE stuff I’ve seen here are, either. I do think APs were better in most cases than the alternatives available to us, and the workload, while ridiculous at times, certainly prepared my kid for college work.