At the AP Open House, the administrators sometimes boast about the percentage of students who have taken the AP exam and scored a three, four, or five. These scores are nothing to scoff at, as an AP class is a major commitment.

However, further research into college admissions will show that threes on an AP exam make a minimal difference in testing out of college classes.

On April 21, 2015 the Illinois House of Representatives passed House Bill 3428, which requires all public higher education institutions to grant credit to any student who receives a three or higher.

The acceptance of this bill by schools is not guaranteed, and public universities in Illinois are working against the bill which is scheduled for the Senate High Education Committee meeting in Springfield on May 12.

It is not difficult to understand why the schools would be working against the new bill. The AP test was originally administered as a means to determine the level of classes an incoming college freshman should be placed in, not avoid taking college classes altogether.

According to Marketplace, an American Public Media broadcast in the New York City Bureau, selective colleges like Dartmouth, Brown and Columbia only use AP classes as an indication of how a student responds to academic rigor, not as a gauge for a student’s aptitude. The idea is that the classroom experience in a college is far superior to what can be provided in an AP class and students shouldn’t just get to opt out due to their assessment from a lower level class.

For the DGN administration and staff to promote scores that are only slightly above the average AP test score of 2.83 instills a false sense of confidence in students. The fact that students are expecting to test-out of classes with a score that is equivalent to a C is insensible.

That being said, DGN still manages to keep its Silver rank in the US News & World Report’s Best High Schools.

Teachers and administrators should recognize that the usefulness of the AP test may change depending on the college subject. For example, at Northwestern University the AP exam is used to place students, but not allow them to skip a language class altogether. Rather than promoting a three as acceptable, students should be told to strive for credited scores such as fours and fives instead of merely a passing score.