Late week we wrote a piece about the growing number of colleges that no longer use the SAT as part of their admission evaluation. I had no idea that the number of non-SAT colleges and universities had grown to 800 or so. We noted that the choice to remove standardized testing from the college admission equation tends to be the province of private liberal art colleges that have admission staffs with the time and funding necessary to read about, interview and evaluate each candidate uniquely.

Major state universities I surmised, require a standard measurement tool of some sort even if imperfect.

The New York Times published an article (“Scarsdale Adjusts to Life Without Advanced Placement Courses“) this past Saturday about the Scarsdale public schools abandonment of the prescribed Advanced Placement (A.P.) curriculum in favor of the district’s own Advanced Topics or AT curriculum. The AT approach is a broader, more integrated, presentation of material- an integrated humanities approach.

The pro-A.P. and anti-A.P. sides have their voices. While A.P. advocates highlight the test’s effective measurement and accepted status, A.P. opponents argue for a greater curriculum diversity and flexibility.

While it’s nice to be able to move beyond the defined A.P. curriculum, John Klemme, Scarsdale’s principal told the NY Times:

“We have the luxury of being able to move beyond the A.P. If people called it a gold curriculum in the past, I refer to this version as the platinum curriculum.”

Opting out of the process is still a function of privilege. The A.P. program is by no means perfect.  But, a consistent examination, requiring certain preparations, provides one way to evaluate students north to south and east to west.