The state of Minnesota passed a new educational law that states that PSEO and AP classes have to have the same weight in GPA because they are both college credit classes. As of next school year, AP classes will not have weighted grades anymore and will instead be an unweighted class like PSEO classes are.
AP classes cause students to challenge themselves to do more work than PSEO classes do. Many students believe AP classes are harder than PSEO classes because there is a lot more work and they work harder in their AP classes.
“As someone who has taken both forms of classes and believes AP classes are more challenging,” junior Zita Meyer said.
In addition, when taking an AP class most students complete around two hours of homework every night, but in PSEO classes students normally have two to three hours of homework a couple days a week. Students are expected to put more work into their AP classes and they are now getting rewarded less for all of that hard work by making AP classes unweighted.
“I won’t be able to get a fair grade,” freshman Claire Capra-Larson said.
Over the years, more students have taken AP classes every year but with the new law implemented students in Minnesota may take less AP classes since it will help them less. Students may believe that taking an AP class can only hurt them not help them now since they can not get the highest GPA possible.
“Students may take less AP classes, because they’re afraid they won’t get college credit unless they pass a high-stakes test,” AP US History teacher Matt Kiedrowski said.
Regardless, when students apply to colleges and scholarships they send their better looking GPA to the college for the best chance of getting accepted. If they take AP classes, and it is weighted, then they have to summit their GPA which can look bad and hurt them from getting scholarships.
If other schools keep their AP classes as weighted that will cause them to have higher GPAs than students and “The lack of a higher weighted GPA can deter colleges from giving scholarships and potentially accepting an application,” Meyer said.
In fact, teachers understand that this new law will stop students from taking AP so they are switching to concurrent enrollment. These new classes will help students keep their grades up well still getting college credits and having less stress on them. Concurrent enrollment offers students transcripted college credits like PSEO without a high-stakes test at the end.
Students will have no end of the year hard test like AP does, but all of the curriculum is the same as the AP classes and student will still get college credit if they get a C- or above explained Kiedrowski.
Though next school year the law will become active and students and teachers will have to handle this major change. Although this may not be ideal because students want to be able to get the best GPA possible, they will still adapt and many will still take advantage of the AP classes available.
“I think students are comfortable with the AP brand, but they’ll adjust as we move forward,” Kiedrowski said.