Recently, the news came out that all students in AP classes will be forced to take AP exams at the end of the year. For years, the precedent has been that students may choose whether or not they will take their test. They usually had to decide sometime in the fall, or they would be charged a late fee. An interview with Mrs. Reimann, Postsecondary Specialist, has revealed details and potential motives for Fort Worth ISD’s recent decision.

“So basically, at Paschal, for as long as I’ve been here, kids have gotten to choose whether or not they want to take their AP exams. If you don’t show up for an AP exam that you do choose to take, they have in the past been able to find you 40 dollars but as far as I’ve been at Paschal they’ve never actually used that fine. The district just ends up paying for it.”

The AP exam order deadline that Mrs. Reimann had to submit was due March 15. On the Friday before spring break, she got a call from her director in charge of CCMR, AP, dual credit, and the like, and he said that too many of Paschal’s students are not signed up to take their exams. After some talk, the director decided to have all students enrolled in an AP course be automatically signed up to take the test.

Mrs. Reimann said that there were about 300 exams that students had opted not to take the exam for, and the director said to have them all take it. Should the students decide to simply not show up, there is nothing that can be done, which could end up costing the district thousands of dollars.

“A late fee is typically anywhere from 40 dollars to 70 dollars, just depending on which kind of test it is, but to order a test that somebody doesn’t want to take, those tests cost anywhere from 75 bucks to 150 to 200 bucks depending on what the test is.”

It changed Fort Worth ISD’s AP exam order from around $130,000 to $160,000, which will all be paid for by the district.

When I asked if these changes will be permanent, Mrs. Reimann explained that she believed change was under the direction of a member of the school’s administration. “He’s new to the district this year. (…) He has the expectation that if you’re in an AP class, you must take the AP exam. I fundamentally disagree with this idea.” Mrs. Reimann elaborated that students should not be forced to take yet another test when they are already swamped by other required tests.

Mrs. Reimann explained that she doesn’t believe that students should have to take a test to prove that they learned. To her, the experience of taking an AP class and the rigor that comes with that provides students with advanced opportunities to learn.

She put forward a theory as to why the district is willing to sacrifice so much money. “What I think they’re trying to do is by forcing all of these kids to take these tests, that’s only going to make your numbers worse than they already are. I think if the numbers look bad, if AP looks bad, I think the district can argue that maybe we need to get away from AP.”

Paschal’s other options for obtaining college credit are dual credit and OnRamps classes. The difference is that a student will get college credit for dual credit or OnRamps by passing the class. AP classes require that a student pass the AP exam to get college credit

“I think, ultimately, they know that CCMR numbers, which is College Career Military Readiness, will go up if more kids are in dual credit, because more kids will pass dual credit classes than they will their AP exams.” Mrs. Reimann assured me that this is not official, but rather a way of explaining the district’s seemingly irrational decision to mandate AP testing for AP students.

Interestingly, this change is coming at a time when the district seems to be pressed for money. “We’re cutting positions all across the district. We’re closing schools all across the district. Fort Worth ISD is in huge money trouble right now.” The fact that Fort Worth ISD is willing to spend extra money on unnecessary tests is indicative of an ulterior motive, and further supports the idea that the district wants AP to die.

“I think people want AP to die. I think they want dual credit and OnRamps to thrive because it’s easier to get college credit that way, but I don’t think the Paschal community and other communities like Paschal will let AP die because of the rigor that is attached to AP and the nationally recognized name of AP. And that’s my hope too, because I don’t want AP to die.”

After talking with Mrs. Reimann, an interview with Jonathan Feldman, a senior at Paschal and member of the student advisory committee to the superintendent, Dr. Angélica Ramsey, revealed more insights into the requirement of taking AP tests. The committee is made up of two or three students from each high school in Fort Worth ISD, and advises Dr. Ramsey on student-related matters. Jonathan discussed what happened at the most recent meeting, in which he asked about the change for AP tests. 

First of all, the meeting was casual, and wasn’t specifically oriented toward any particular subject. Dr. Ramsey “wanted to present some of the new promotional material that the Fort Worth ISD is going to employ starting next year. They had some AI-generated images—it was very strange.” Because Dr. Ramsey has missed the last few meeting, she gave the students an opportunity to discuss topics and ask questions of her.

“I asked her directly, does she think it’s a good idea to force students to take an exam? Wouldn’t that discourage them from taking AP classes? Wouldn’t that lower scores overall? She said two very interesting things. The first thing she said, which I don’t agree with, is that it’s more equitable this way. (…) I would argue that it’s more equitable for students to choose whether or not they want to take an exam, that way they have the choice. 

He explained that forcing students to take classes really isn’t equitable because they are all taking different career and educational paths after high school. In some of those paths, students would be at an advantage having AP credits under their belt, but in other paths, AP credits are unnecessary. In some cases, colleges don’t accept credits from certain AP courses.

“The second question I had was whether or not she thought this was going to lower scores, and an interesting thing Dr. Ramsey mentioned is that they want to use this year, when they’re forcing every student to take the exam, as sort of a litmus test for how effective AP is as a curriculum, and how effective teachers are at teaching AP.”

The problem with this, he explained, is that students who weren’t planning on taking the test are now forced to, regardless of how prepared they are. They have gone most of the school year believing that they would not have to take a test, and so haven’t prepared and studied for it.

“If students weren’t inclined to take the exam in the first place, they’re not inclined to study, and so that’s a bad representation of, first of all, the teacher’s ability to share information and to convey information, but also, whether or not the AP curriculum is a good one.”

Jonathan, too, has talked with Mrs. Reimann about the issue, and she explained to him her belief that Fort Worth ISD may be trying to “prove the inefficacy of the AP curriculum,” as he put it. When all students are forced to take a test, however, they likely won’t all be trying their best leading up to and during the test, so test scores won’t be “indicative of how good a curriculum is.”

Like Mrs. Reimann, Jonathan strongly supports AP classes. “AP is the best program for college credit across the country, and even internationally because dual credit often isn’t accepted outside of a given state. So, by limiting students in the future, perhaps, to simply OnRamps and dual credit courses, the administration will be severely limiting the education that students can achieve as a high schooler and also the acceleration that they can attain as a college student.”

He also mentioned financial issues of Fort Worth ISD, and how that supports the notion that the district wants to cut AP. In reference to the money spent on unnecessary tests, he said,“It’s a lot of money, especially when budget cuts are being instituted across the district. Teachers are losing their jobs, people are losing their jobs, and we are, as a district, spending money on tests that no one is going to take and no one wants to take.”

Jonathan explained the parallels between the district’s potential destruction of AP and the downsizing of other departments. Namely, foreign language. Paschal’s Latin teacher Mr. Wright is retiring this year, and he does not believe that there are plans to replace him. Jonathan also said that there may be reductions to the other language departments, with the exception of Spanish, which is undeniably prevalent and useful in Texas.

Coming back to AP, Jonathan finished by saying,“Yes, AP is expensive, but it also is the most effective and it’s the most beneficial form of higher education one can receive as a high schooler, and so we cannot lose sight of what the ultimate goal of Fort Worth ISD is, which is to educate students.” Perhaps the coming school year will tell Paschal what Fort Worth ISD thinks of the effectiveness of the AP program. This year’s test scores could be what determines the future of AP in Fort Worth.