Back in May, I wrote about the plan in Illinois to require that all public universities give credit for AP scores of three or higher, to eliminate the variations between universities and exams — that is, for math and science exams in particular, various of the more rigorous schools require that students earn a 4 or even a 5 in order to receive credit and placement in a higher level class, but the legislature planned to remove this discretion and require that all universities accept a score of 3.
Here’s the update: today’s Trib reports,
Beginning with the 2016-17 school year, Illinois colleges and universities must provide course credit to students who score at least a 3 on an AP exam, according to a bill signed into law this week by Gov. Bruce Rauner. . . .
Some higher education officials were concerned that the law could affect academic standards by forcing colleges to give credit to students for courses they shouldn’t skip. The officials were also concerned that granting students college credit could cut tuition revenues.
But Charles Tucker, vice provost for undergraduate education and innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said the law allows universities and colleges to determine what kind of credit they’ll offer for a score of 3, which will help maintain academic standards. McGuire said that was a compromise after hearing from higher education officials.
Now, the worry about tuition revenues falling is irksome, but it would be more irksome if this appeared to have made an impact on decision-making.
But what has happened, exactly? Here’s the full text of the bill:
Sec. 30. Examination; postsecondary-level course credit.
(a) In this Section, “institution of higher education” means a public university or public community college located in this State.
(b) Beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year, scores of 3, 4, and 5 on the College Board Advanced Placement examinations shall be accepted for credit to satisfy degree requirements by all institutions of higher education. Each institution of higher education shall determine for each test whether credit will be granted for electives, general education requirements, or major requirements and the Advanced Placement scores required to grant credit for those purposes.
(c) By the conclusion of the 2019-2020 academic year, the Board of Higher Education, in cooperation with the Illinois Community College Board, shall analyze the Advanced Placement examination score course granting policy of each institution of higher education and the research used by each institution in determining the level of credit and the number of credits provided for the Advanced Placement scores in accordance with the requirements of this Section and file a report that includes findings and recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor. Each institution of higher education shall provide the Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board with all necessary data, in accordance with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, to conduct the analysis.
(d) Each institution of higher education shall publish its updated Advanced Placement examination score course granting policy in accordance with the requirements of this Section on its Internet website before the beginning of the 2016-2017 academic year.
So: the law doesn’t do much, really, in the end. Schools can retain their current policies with respect to placement, and have fulfilled the letter of the law (so far as I can tell) if they grant one unit of elective credit for each exam. Courses of study vary in the degree to which students have room in their degree requirements for a great many electives — liberal arts degrees have so many electives that it’s easy to do double majors, but, a I recall, engineering majors have very few; e.g., the mechanical engineering curriculum at the University of Illinois provides for a total of two truly free electives (excluding those required for general education). So this may simply have the impact of enabling students to fill their electives with these AP-earned units.
But will a “minimalist” university have legislators angry at them, with funding threats, if they don’t provide a full class’s worth, or even a full set-of-classes’ worth, of credits, for the corresponding AP test? Will the legislators rail that they’ve violated the intent of the law if they don’t grant credit for the specific courses the exam is designed to replace?
So I’m torn: I believe there ought to be a robust system that allows students to get credit in nontraditional ways — through credit-by-exam, through dual-credit high school classes, through work portfolios. If we can’t dislodge the college degree as the credential required by an ever-increasing number of employers for ever-increasing occupations, then minimizing the seat-time, and the full-cost credit hours, is the next-best thing. On the other hand, I’d like to see a variety of options, and am concerned that this sort of state mandate will have unintended consequences.
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