Teachers need to Provide More AP and Honors classes

Today’s hiring managers are more often  looking for a college degree from their applicants; Advanced and Honors classes are vital to a student’s success as they make their way through high school and apply to colleges. An AP course prepares students to take the AP for the subject and if the student receives a passing grade, then they receive a certain amount of college credit as regulated by each individual college; whether or not they pass the test, however, the students are still enrolled a class that greatly mirrors a college course. An article in USA Today states, “State-based studies by the National Center for Educational Accountability in Texas and the University of California-Berkeley, to name two, show that students who pass AP exams are more likely to earn a bachelor's degree than those who don't pass” (Marklain). Therefore, AP students are more prepared for college than their regular classes counterparts. Honors classes are obviously more advanced than regular classes yet less strenuous than AP classes. Daniel de Vise of the Washington Post describes honors classes as being able to read two Charles Dickens books in the same time their counterparts read one and may also assign more elaborate writing assignments to delve deeper into the material (de Vise). Thus honors classes can be implemented as a sedge way into AP classes. College courses are seen by school officials as an alternative that students are at liberty take if the school doesn’t offer the advanced classes. However, a study conducted by University of Texas at Austin researchers Linda Hargrove and Barbara Dodd and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board researcher Donn Godin have found “AP students do better in college than similar students who have taken college courses in high school. This finding confirms the view of several selective college admissions deans that the local college offerings, called dual enrollment courses, are often not as challenging as AP” and likewise “students with similar SAT or ACT scores and economic backgrounds do better in college if they have taken the AP courses and exams” (Mathews). School officials and administrators make a living teaching our children and giving them the tools they need to be successful in college and in their overall lives; if they have the resources to give our children the edge and the knowledge the need, would it not be negligent to withhold resources and materials that might very well be the difference between going to college prepared and going to college unprepared, to struggle, and possibly drop out?