Is lots of AP/IB a bad thing?

Here's an interesting article from the Washington Post that explores the issue of AP/IB overload in high-performing schools. It's probably worth reading if you have high school student at JIS.

A WaPo reader takes education reporter-extraordinaire Jay Matthews to task for glorifying hellish course loads that include 8 or 9 AP or IB courses in the 11th and 12th grades. And she points another finger of blame at "...high schools and colleges pushing every bright student toward a course load that is 75 to 80 percent AP," saying those educators are:

"...doing many bright students a disservice by pushing AP to such an extreme. These kids would do well in college anyway, and they are sacrificing their childhoods, which are so important, and are taught to obsess over individual achievement at an early age."

Matthews doesn't necessarily disagree with the reader, saying, "I think you are right to be concerned about some students taking more AP or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses than are good for them."

Matthews goes on to explain why too much emphasis on AP/IB -- at the expense of other activities and passions -- can actually make admission to Ivy Leagues and other upper-eschelon universities more difficult. He's interviewed boat-loads of high school counselors and college admissions officers, and he's discovered that:

If an admissions officer has one applicant who has taken nine AP tests and has the usual collection of class offices and clubs and sports teams, and another applicant with three AP scores and a collection of published poetry, the selective college admissions officer -- all other things being equal -- is going to take the poet every time. Interesting and unusual after-school passions are the gold standard of modern college admissions, so loading up too many AP courses can actually hurt you.

That's something to consider as you and your high school student sit down to create an educational plan for those 9th-to-12th-grade years. How many AP/IB classes are enough to demonstrate a solid ability to handle university-level classes, while at the same time allowing a kid to be a kid?

(In a related note, here's the website for the College Board's Advanced Placement International Diploma -- or APID -- program. It's something that JIS offers, in addition to the JIS high school diploma and the IB diploma. The APID requires students to score a 3 or above on at least four AP exams in several different subjects.)