An Alternative to AP

[Steve Perkins]

Andrew Reinhard posted an idea about creating an alternative to the AP, perhaps something under the auspices of the ACL. I am curious what others would think of this idea and how we could get it going. College Board seems to have a monopoly at the moment on academic testing, which is allowing it operate in a capricious way. There should be no reason it is the only game in town.

[Irina Greenman]

I think it would be a fantastic idea, but would not serve the small programs in large public schools.

At my school, a huge percentage of the students need AP credits in order to be able to afford college. If Latin didn't have AP offerings, we would have almost no students. We are a small program (under 150 students) in a huge school (about 3000 students). As such, we struggle year-to-year to prove our viability, and one of the most important points we've been able to make is the AP exams (we have yet to see what the cancellation of AP Lit will do to our program - but it won't be good, that's for sure).

I personally do not approve of credit exams. I think that they do nothing to enhance the college experience. However, I can say with absolute certainty that parents in my county would not support a credit exam in their place, and that our Latin program would probably perish if we lost AP.

In a perfect world, we could tell College Board that we don't care about them anymore, and we're going to do our own exam and do what we have to do for the benefit of our students. Unfortunately, this isn't that perfect world.

College Board's current position is the reason for anti-trust laws. They have done more harm than good, in my opinion, but there's no other option as far as credit exams go, and like it or not those credit exams are central to parents' decisions for their kids.

[Latinum Institute]

Why not simply offer the new Oxford and Cambridge International "Pre-University" (Pre-U) examination in Latin, which becomes available in 2008.
As a UK A - level equivalent, (actually, it is pitched at a higher level than A-Level, and is intended to be of University-level) it should have AP status for the majority of USA universities, according to my initial research on the CIE website. .This syllabus offers is a wide ranging course, with a broad selection of texts. Getting its certification confirmed as an AP equivalent would be much simpler than initiating a new examination.
Evan Millner. London.

[nick russo]

I love this idea as well as the one by Mr. Reinhard. Is there any serious discussion at the college level.
Nick Russo