Legislating AP Credit: Higher Education Bubble Sign Or . . .

Not long ago, I wrote about a plan afoot in my local school district/community college district to expand dual-enrollment classes from a few specialized vocational-type classes (CNA, computer networking) to a set of classes intended to meet general education requirements, the rigor of which I found questionable: Speech Communication, Introduction to Visual Art, Physical Science (for non-majors), and two math courses for non-STEM majors, each of which appeared to be no more rigorous than any standard 12th grade math course. I had said at the time that, though I didn’t like the application, I liked the overall concept, and would like to see, instead of AP classes, true college-rigor classes taught via dual enrollment* so that success doesn’t hinge on a single exam: for composition and history, for math, and for the sciences, where, in particular, if you look at lists of what scores colleges accept, the need to ensure that a student truly understands the material and is ready to move on to the next level, means that colleges are much more demanding about what level score they accept for credit. I subtitled this post “Higher Education Bubble Sign or Reynold’s Law” because of Glenn Reynolds/Instapundit’s observation that giving someone the trappings of middle-classness doesn’t give them the abilities and the traits that allow them to succeed.

(*Tangential comment: by comparison, German bachelor degree programs are three years long, because the expectation is that the gymnasium coursework is rigorous enough that the typical American freshman year, consisting of a series of introductory and general-education courses, isn’t necessary. But that’s another post.)

But apparently the Illinois state legislature doesn’t see it this way. According to this morning’s Tribune (see here for non-subscriber link):

College standards for granting credit for AP tests vary widely. The tests are scored on a 5-point scale, but while some colleges and universities will award credit for scores as low as 2, others require the top score of 5 in certain subjects, according to the College Board, which administers the program. At some schools, the standards vary by subject, while the University of Illinois has different thresholds for different campuses.

To standardize the criteria, lawmakers are considering passing a law to require public universities and colleges in Illinois to give course credit for scores of 3 or better.

The idea met resistance from higher education officials who feared it would lower academic standards, and a similar bill died in the legislature last year. But this year, the proposal appears to be gaining momentum.

The state House passed the measure by an overwhelming, bipartisan 90-22 vote. Last week, the Senate higher education committee approved the bill unanimously. It is expected to go before the Senate for a vote this week.

There’s a nifty graphic at the link, which shows the score requirement at each of the Illinois public universities and Chicago area community colleges; it is true that the most prevalent requirement is a 3, but not consistently.

Universities, of course, aren’t pleased with this state intervention, and are trying to at least modify the bill to allow them to grant elective credit, rather than directly substituting for specific requirements, especially when a class is a prerequisite and students are at risk of failing the next class in the sequence without adequate preparation.

And it’s my understanding that there are some universities, Ivy League ones in particular, that don’t accept any AP credit, whether this is because they think no AP class is of sufficient rigor, ever, or because they simply don’t want to lose tuition revenue, I don’t know, and, in any case, I think it’s improbable that Illinois state colleges have the latter, tuition-collection concern in mind.

What it all comes down to is this: it’s foolish to take away from universities the discretion to determine that for any given AP test, based on their evaluation, a higher score is needed to grant the proposed credit — that is, if a university education is about learning rather than just accruing credits. On the other hand, if it is just about the credits, then hooray for the legislature!

Sunday morning update: Hi, instapundit readers! Here’s a comment from Glenn’s link, from user BobRog:

I’ve said before that the key weakness in GR’s writing on education is his failure to confront the problem of evaluating student learning. It’s the hardest problem in education, and the internet has NOT made it significantly easier. The AP is a huge national attempt to do evaluation. If it is a scam, then that’s a big problem for those who think that education can be fundamentally transformed by online courses. Unless you have a good way to evaluate student learning, all education is just fancy show and tell.

One thing that occurs to me that could help is to break AP exams up into much smaller chunks; that way, a student’s overall performance can be evaluated much more comprehensively, and you can know which “3s” are true 3s vs. 4s with nerves or 2s with a good test-taking day. And, in principle, exam-based evaluation is a good thing; after all, I landed in my field due to the opportunity to get a credential by exam-taking, even if my university course of study was entirely different. (Remind me to write about that . . . )

Legislating AP credit: Higher Education bubble sign or . . .