In Suburban Schools, an Alternative to A.P.
Dual-enrollment courses have long been used in urban schools to provide some higher education to poor and minority students and encourage them to go on to college. But now many top suburban high schools are embracing dual enrollment as a way to challenge their brightest students and ward off senioritis once college applications are done. They say the college courses offer an alternative to the high-pressure AP program, in which students receive college credits or advanced placement based on their performance on an exam at the end of the year. But in some suburban circles, parents worry that the rapidly expanding college courses could cause their high schools’ rankings to drop in surveys, many of which factor in AP enrollment. Winnie Hu, The New York Times, Jan. 11, 2010