In the world of Advanced Placement (AP) courses, Cal High students put in countless hours learning college-level material while balancing their high school responsibilities.
Before this year, some students who were in these classes were rewarded for their hard work by having some grades adjusted based on high scores on AP exams.
But now, when a student achieves a score of four or five on an AP exam at the end of the year, the reward stops with potential college credit.
Their final course grade will remain unchanged. This was the wrong decision to make.
Thanks to a new school policy, AP students will no longer receive a grade boost for earning a score of four or five. This change was implemented to address an equity issue since not all students can afford to take expensive AP exams, which cost $139 per exam at Cal.
In addition, making these grade changes created an excess amount of work for counselors at the beginning of the year.
The one saving grace is AP students from last year will still receive their grade boost.
Earning a score of four or five on an AP exam demonstrates that students understood the college-level material, which should be reflected in their final course grades. This new policy is unfair to these students.
A grade boost recognizes their hard work and motivates students to take their AP exams more seriously, knowing their performance will directly impact their academic profile.
Although there are teachers who disagree with the policy change that eliminates the grade boost, it is apparent there needed to be greater consistency if the previous system was to remain in place.
In previous years, some teachers offered no grade boost for a high AP score, while others provided a five percent bump, which was often too little to make much of a difference. But some teachers offered a one-semester grade boost for a score of five, while others raised grades one letter for a four and two-letters for a five.
This lack of uniformity led to an unfair playing field for students as those taking the same course with different teachers weren’t rewarded equally.
The school should make a policy for more consistency among teachers where students are rewarded with a one-semester grade bump of 10 percent if they scored a four and two semester grade bumps for a five.
This should have been the policy that was implemented for every AP teacher to follow instead of one that offers no grade boost at all.