Florida schools will not stop offering Advanced Placement classes, whatever Gov. Ron DeSantis suggests.
With other rigorous options, such as International Baccalaureate and Cambridge,“it is not clear to me that this particular operator (College Board) is the one that is going to be needed in the future,” said DeSantis, who also mentioned dual-enrollment programs that let high school students take college classes.
AP is way too entrenched to be dropped, and most of the classes don't have the political baggage of the new AP African American Studies class. So, why does the ambitious governor think trolling College Board is politically smart? I don't know.
DeSantis has bragged about the number of students in AP in the past, writes Jeffrey S. Solochek in the Tampa Bay Times. Florida encourages AP participation by paying exam fees, paying a bonus to teachers whose students pass the AP exam and counting exam success as part of the high school accountability system. "Last year, it budgeted $4 million to prepare teachers for the courses as a way to improve minority student participation and success in Advanced Placement as required."
Florida also funds dual enrollment programs, which are growing rapidly but do not serve as many students as AP.
Could Florida drop the SAT? I don't see it.
Department of Education officials have hinted in social media that the Classic Learning Test, or CLT, could be an alternative to College Board's SAT tests, writes Solochek.
Popular with homeschooled students and students at schools that teach classics, CLT is similar to the SAT, writes Ashley Robinson on PrepScholar. However, reading passages are taken from literature, such as Ann Bronte's Agnes Grey, and the math test includes more logic questions. Here's a sample test.