The new OPS AP Rules are exclusionary

Omaha Central High partners with a couple different universities in the Omaha area to dual enroll most of its Advance Placement classes so that students at Central can accumulate college credit while still in high school. In previous years, AP students had a couple different options when it came to college credits. They can either dual enroll in the class and guarantee college credits at the sponsor school while also taking the AP exam to attempt to get credits for schools that don’t accept dual enrollment, they can choose to only take the AP exam, they can choose to only be dual enrolled and not take the AP Exam, or they can choose to opt out of getting college credits and just take the AP course. This year, those rules have changed. Beginning this year, all OPS students who are taking an AP class, regardless of whether they’re dual enrolled, are going to be required to either take the AP test at the end of the year or an Alternative Assessment provided by the district. The intention behind the Alternative Assessment is to encourage more kids to take the AP exam and emphasize that AP classes are about challenging yourself. In reality, it just tells students that the district cares more about their money than it does about their success.

In high school, often times students are made to feel like dollar signs rather than students.  Throughout the course of four years, there are countless different expenses that come along, just a small portion being AP classes. The biggest problem with the new rules for AP classes is that the Alternative Assessment is factored into the students’ final grade whereas the AP exam cant be as the scores come out mid-July. Although requiring all AP students to take some comprehensive exam to ‘challenge’ them seems like a good idea, the fact is, the Alternative Assessment is an unfair way for some students to secure their grades in a class by paying for an exam while others are at the mercy of a heavily weighted comprehensive assessment.

OPS is a public-school district with students of all socioeconomic backgrounds. This sentiment that “if you don’t want to take a test then you shouldn’t take AP” is exclusionary and isolates students who don’t have the money to dual enroll or may not qualify for free/reduced lunch. Students shouldn’t be charged hundreds of dollars to prove that they belong in AP classes along with their wealthier classmates.

OPS prides itself on being an inclusive environment that provides equal opportunities for success to all its students, but these new rules send a contradicting messages. It’s already clear to see a huge disparity amongst the kids who are in AP/ Honors classes versus regular classes based on socioeconomic status, and the implementation of required testing is only making that chasm wider.