Editing Advanced Placement (section)

==Criticism==

===Decreasing quality===
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Lichten appears to have been the first to question whether AP can maintain high academic standards while experiencing explosive growth.<ref name="Lichten, 2000">{{cite journal|last1=Lichten|first1=William|title=Whither Advanced Placement|journal=Education Policy Analysis Archives|year=2000|volume=8|issue=29|page=29|doi=10.14507/epaa.v8n29.2000|url=http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/420|access-date=January 12, 2017|doi-access=free|archive-date=January 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113171857/http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/420|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Lichten, 2010">{{cite book|last1=Lichten|first1=William|editor1-last=Sadler|editor1-first=P. M.|editor2-last=Sonnert|editor2-first=G.|editor3-last=Tai|editor3-first=R. H.|editor4-last=Klopfenstein|editor4-first=K.|title=AP: A critical examination of the Advanced Placement program|date=2010|publisher=Harvard Education Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=233–243|chapter=Whither Advanced Placement--now?}}</ref>  Whether the AP program can serve large numbers of students well is a matter of some concern within the education field.<ref name="Warne, 2017">{{cite journal|last1=Warne|first1=R. T.|title=Research on the academic benefits of the Advanced Placement program: Taking stock and looking forward |journal=SAGE Open|year=2017|volume=7|issue=1|pages=215824401668299|doi=10.1177/2158244016682996|doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Passing scores and university credit===
A 2024 report stated that students who receive scores of 3 and higher are being given college credit at fewer top colleges and universities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Terr |first=Alex |date=2024-12-10 |title=Diminishing Credit II: How Colleges and Universities Restrict the Use of AP and IB Towards Earning a Degree in Less Than Four Years |url=https://www.progressivepolicy.org/diminishing-credit-ii-how-colleges-and-universities-restrict-the-use-of-ap-and-ib-towards-earning-a-degree-in-less-than-four-years/ |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=Progressive Policy Institute |language=en-US}}</ref> Also in 2024, Hess noted that an increasing proportion of students who take and pass AP courses are not ready for college-level work.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hess |first=Rick |date=2024-10-31 |title='Academic Rigor Is in Decline.' A College Professor Reflects on AP Scores |url=https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-academic-rigor-is-in-decline-a-college-professor-reflects-on-ap-scores/2024/10 |access-date=2025-02-17 |work=Education Week |language=en |issn=0277-4232}}</ref>

===Academic achievement===
A 2010 study of the impact of the Advanced Placement program on students' academic achievement found that students who took AP courses in the sciences but failed the AP exam performed no better in college science courses than students without any AP course at all.<ref name="hood">{{cite journal |last1=Hood |first1=Lucy |last2=Sadler |first2=Philip M. |year=2010 |title=Putting AP to the Test: New research assesses the Advanced Placement program |journal=Harvard Education Letter |volume=26 |issue=May/June 2010 |url=http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/466#home |access-date=November 7, 2012 |archive-date=March 30, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330054044/http://hepg.org/hel/article/466#home |url-status=live }}</ref> Referring to students who complete the course but fail the exam, the head researcher, Phillip M. Sadler, stated in an interview that "research shows that they don't appear to have learned anything during the year, so there is probably a better course for them."

Two subsequent studies compared non-AP students with AP students who had not taken their course's AP exam, had taken the AP exam but did not pass it, or had passed the AP exam. Like Sadler's study, both found that AP students who passed their exam scored highest in other measures of academic achievement.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ackerman|first1=Phillip|last2=Kanfer|first2=Ruth|last3=Calderwood|first3=Charles|title=High school Advanced Placement and student performance in college: STEM majors, non-STEM majors, and gender differences|journal=Teachers College Record|year=2013|volume=115|issue=10|pages=1–43|doi=10.1177/016146811311501003 |s2cid=141871464 |ref=Ackerman et al. (2013)}}</ref> The largest study of this sort, with a sample size of over 90,000, replicated these results and also showed that non-AP students performed with equal levels of academic achievement as AP students who did not take their course's AP exam—even after controlling for over 70 intervening variables.<ref name="Warne et al. (2015)">{{cite journal|last1=Warne|first1=Russell T.|last2=Larsen|first2=Ross|last3=Anderson|first3=Braydon|last4=Odasso|first4=Alyce J.|title=The impact of participation in the Advanced Placement program on students' college admissions test scores|journal=The Journal of Educational Research|year=2015|volume=108|issue=5|pages=400–416|doi=10.1080/00220671.2014.917253|hdl=10.1080/00220671.2014.917253|s2cid=146577291|hdl-access=free}}</ref> This led the authors to state that AP participation "is not beneficial to students who merely enroll in the courses..."<ref name="Warne et al. (2015)" />{{rp|414}}