What has been your recent experience?
Back in the Stone Age when I attended high school, the standards were relatively clear. Nowadays and into the future, I simply can't tell. I do know that the "written" standards have been and continue to creep upwards. Based on recent communication with the head of secondary math for our district, I know that DS (class of 2021) will need four math credits in high school, Calculus AB, Calculus BC and two of the three less common courses (Statistics, Linear Algebra and Differential Equations). For DD (class of 2021), it will be Algebra II, Pre-calculus, Calculus AB and either Calculus BC or Statistics. More generally, our district has moved from three high school math credits to four with one of them now required to be beyond the Algebra I, Algebra II and Geometry trio such as Pre-calculus or statistics. Is this the trend elsewhere as well?
I am more baffled by the current situation with the science courses. Apparently, the GT science sequences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Science) use college textbooks. The students commonly take the AP counterpart after the GT version although it is possible to take certain AP science courses as a freshman. This all seem redundant to me. If you are capable of mastering a subject through a college text, why would you need to repeat the subject under the auspices of the AP umbrella? Am I missing something? What is the difference?
For Literature/Language Arts, the GT sequence for Juniors and Seniors is AP Language Arts and AP Literature respectively. For Histories (World & U.S.) and Government, you can simply take the AP versions instead during the Freshman through Junior years.
In general, prerequisites for AP now seems to vary depending on the subject matter. Furthermore, it seems fairly common for Freshmen and Sophomores to have some AP courses. How common is this trend? Does this have the effect of diluting these courses?
