Advanced Placement or Always Poop?

Kevin Drum over at Washington Monthly has a great debate going on over the issue of Advanced Placement courses in high school. He blogs about the recent bragging by the College Board about the increase in both student enrollment and student scores, and shares an email he received from a hard science prof trashing the program. You can read the post and debate here.

My own thoughts: I want AP courses in my high school. I loved AP in high school, even AP Spanish (though I never learned the alphabet and still got a 3!). I realize that they have their problems, and the pacing and scope is an issue. That being said, in a county where many of the students have little exposure to anything approaching college level material, or even plans or finances for college, AP is a fine alternative. I have a number of students in both my honors and regular classes that would get at least a 3 on the Exam, given the curriculum and the opportunity. Of course, this assumes that they would bother, you know, reading.