Should New Roads Offer AP Classes?

Every spring, thousands of high school students take AP exams. Why don’t we? 

AP, or Advanced Placement classes, have been around for decades. Operated by the College Board (who also operate the SAT), they are generally considered the highest possible level of classes a student can take, and most can count as college credit, providing you score well on the test. The curriculum, the exact same in every school it is taught, is all in preparation for the national exam taken at the end of the year. Students who score more than a 3 on the exam, considered a passing grade, can use their test scores to get out of the introductory college courses. Most colleges, when considering the rigor of a student’s academic transcript during the admission process, look for AP classes. According to the College Board website, about 80% of US public high schools offer at least five AP classes and around 60% of US high schools, including public and private, offer an AP curriculum. 

So why doesn’t New Roads?

(Photograph: College Board)

The short answer is that New Roads does not believe in standardized testing. 

Director of Student Support Services, Sara Durantini, says, “If you think about what our school was founded on, part of it is progressive education. When you think about standardized testing, it is very prescriptive. The idea of teaching for a test for the goal of simply taking a test goes against our idea of a progressive education.” 

New Roads does, however, offer one standardized test– the PSAT. “We do offer the PSAT because we understand the importance of preparing our students for the world after New Roads, and that world includes the SAT. A standardized test on one Saturday does not lend itself to the entire curriculum, while AP classes do,” Durantini continued.

(Photograph: Vanco)

New Roads isn’t the only school in the LA area without AP classes. Schools like Crossroads School and Geffen Academy do not offer AP classes, and even traditionally rigorous schools like Harvard-Westlake are moving towards dropping them from their curriculum. But this movement is pretty limited– private schools around the country are continuing to offer the AP curriculum. Avery Walbrandt, who graduated from Villa Duchesne, a private Catholic all-girls Sacred Heart school in St. Louis, Missouri in 2023, is currently studying Sports Management at Indiana University, and took three AP classes between her junior and senior year in high school. 

“The ones I took were great, but in terms of my major, they haven’t been extremely important in the grand scheme of things. I did enjoy them and loved my teachers at the time, though” says Walbrandt. Her sister, Sophie, who also attended Villa and graduated from Indiana University in 2025, disagreed. “My sister thought they were pretty useless, though, and she took AP Psychology, which helped with her minor, and thought it was kind of a waste. Our high school also made us take the exam if we were enrolled in the class, which added a lot of stress,” Walbrandt said.

This begs the question: Do New Roads students want our school to offer AP classes? Several seniors had different opinions. Senior Mia Attie says, “When I first started at New Roads, it [AP] was a big concern of mine, but I feel like a lot of the schools in LA are moving away from AP, so it’s no longer unique to New Roads.” 

Josephine Doolittle, another senior, disagrees, “Honors classes already exist, and AP is just another level, like advanced honors classes. I think it’s a better resource to have going into the college process.” Several students, applying to schools without a holistic review process, worry that their lack of AP classes on their transcripts and lower GPA may disadvantage them in the college process. 

AP classes also give a preview of college coursework. “I think we are at a little bit of a disadvantage, because I think it would be nice for people to have the option to earn college credit. I feel like I would benefit from that and a lot of other people would, too,” said Doolittle. Other seniors agreed. “I think it would give us a head start in college and make our applications better,” argues senior Logan Montalbano.

(Photograph: OnToCollege)

Some students also argue that New Roads should offer an option to at least take the test, even if they are against offering the class. Students feel they are missing out not on the GPA boost and rigor, but on the opportunity to earn college credit. After all, New Roads classes like Honors US History and Advanced Honors Chemistry have similar content to AP US History and AP Chemistry. The answer is one of staffing. Like the PSAT, AP classes require schools to staff their own exams, meaning schools often do not have the resources to offer tests. It takes time, and it would take teachers away from their classes during the school day. 

So, will New Roads ever give its students an opportunity? Some students suggested an optional study program, where students prepped for the class and took the test at another school. As the landscape surrounding AP changes in the LA area, though, one wonders how long any private school will continue to offer AP classes.