Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences will be reevaluating its policy of accepting Advanced Placement credit, according to Provost and CAS Dean Dennis Berkey.
Last year, Berkey appointed a special faculty committee to review the University’s policies and practices concerning AP courses and credits, chaired by professor Fred Kleiner of the Art History Department. Kleiner, who actively reviews AP examinations for the College Board, was concerned that too much general education experience was being taught in high school for AP credits, Berkey said.
The committee issued a set of recommendations that are under review this year by the Academic Policy Committee. The APC is expected to make a recommendation that will go to the CAS faculty for approval later this spring, Berkey said.
According to Berkey, the APC will make four main recommendations. The first is a limit on the number of AP credits applicable to obtaining a CAS degree. The second is that the minimum acceptable score be raised to four. Some courses currently accept a score of three.
APC will also recommend that individual departments evaluate AP curricula and examinations relevant to the department, Berkey said. In addition, each department should collect and review data on how well students who have received AP course credits do in more advanced courses.
“There is a serious dean-mandated, faculty-led discussion on this issue,” said BU spokesman Colin Riley.
Berkey said BU’s current policy on conferring AP credits varies by school and department. In some subjects, a high score on an AP test has counted for two course credits. If the APC’s recommendations are approved by the faculty, the AP scores will count for a maximum of one course.
The percentages of students with AP credit in each class has risen greatly over recent years, according to Berkey.
“For the class that graduated in 1995, 18.3 percent had entered with some AP credit,” he said. “That percentage increased to 29.4 percent for the class graduating in 2000. For the class entering in the fall of 2000, the percentage was approximately 60 percent.”
Berkey said this trend, which has appeared in a number of colleges across the nation, is a signal that the validity and appropriate role of AP credits should be closely examined.
One school reviewing the effectiveness of AP courses, Harvard University, will no longer award college credits to students who receive a four on Advanced Placement exams. This recent decision by Harvard’s faculty will go into effect beginning with the Class of 2007.
According to Andrea Shen, spokeswoman for the Office of Communications for the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, the reason for the decision was in a large part due to a study that concluded that students with fours on their AP tests were not as prepared for college level courses as those with fives.
“It has been a widespread experience among members of the faculty … [that there is a] difference in level preparation among students who had received a four and those who had received a five Shen said. “[The ruling is] an effort to make the standards for advanced standing more commensurate with the student’s actual experience.”
The average class size at Harvard is 1,650 students, Shen said. Approximately 700 students from each class are eligible to receive college credits from their AP test scores. Roughly 50 percent accept the credit.
Harvard’s decision will cast “some additional doubt” on how accurately AP examinations measure a student’s capability, Berkey said. However, he said Harvard’s decision will have no effect on the outcome of the faculty approval.
Riley agreed. “It’s sort of like asking a juror if he’s read the newspaper,” he said.
While Berkey said the extent to which AP courses are equal to college work needs to be reconsidered, the courses still have value, he said.
“The AP examinations certainly have some significant validity,” he said.
BU students had mixed feelings about Harvard’s decision.
“I don’t think it’s fair because the scores people get on the AP test aren’t always an accurate reflection of their mastery of the work,” said Inga Dorfman, a CAS sophomore.
Other students feel differently about Harvard’s decision.
“It’s Harvard,” said Julian Dayal, a School of Management sophomore. “You should be getting fives if you’re going to Harvard.”