When Aaron Kingslien graduates from high school this May, he’ll do so with nearly two semesters worth of college credit hours under his belt.
Kingslien pulled this off by taking several Advanced Placement (AP) classes, college-level courses taught in high school classroom coordinated through the CollegeBoard, a national nonprofit college entrance examination board whose mission is to expand access to higher educations.
So far, Kingslien has taken 13 exams and plans to take another eight this spring.
While the AP system may sound similar to dual credit programs, — abundant in San Antonio mostly thanks to the Alamo Colleges District and their five campuses across the city — the two are very different.
AP classes follow the same standards across the country, making it easier for credits to transfer to out-of-state colleges and universities. Usually based on pipelines between high schools and local community colleges, dual credit classes use more regional standards.
“AP has a specific set of college level standards, a scope and sequence specific skills that have to be mastered. So if you take this course, it looks somewhat similar, with similar expectations, no matter where you take it,” said Jimmie Walker, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Alamo Heights Independent School District.
The biggest difference between AP and dual credit involves the way students actually attain the college credit.
For the most part, AP students only receive college credit if they score a three or higher on a scale of 1 to 5 on their respective exams.
Exams cost $99 each and usually take place at the end of the school year.
To get the credit in a dual credit program, students dually enroll at their high school and a local higher education institution and must pass a class with a grade of 70 or higher by the end of the term — credit isn’t contingent on one single exam.
Alamo Heights High School has both AP and dual credit.
The school became an early college high school, meaning they have a dual credit program, in the fall of 2024, but has offered AP courses for 20 years.
When deciding between taking AP courses or dual credit, Walker said there is no clear winner. The programs generally offer different subject matters and both boost a student’s grade point average.
“There aren’t a lot of points of competition between dual and AP,” Walker said. “A lot of it depends on where they want to go to college, and what courses will transfer in with what credit hours.”
“I wish there was an easy answer. It sure would help when parents and students are making these decisions. But the best we can do is just come beside them and literally counsel them. Look on college websites, look at the students testing history.”
CollegeBoard’s catalog has 40 different AP exams, and Alamo Heights, the district’s only high school, offers classes for about 26 of them. Most of those classes touch on core subjects, like AP Biology and AP English Language and Composition. Others are more elective, like AP Music Theory or AP Psychology.
Most classes last a school year with a few exceptions like AP Psychology and AP Sociology, semester long classes that are often taken back to back during a school cycle.
In March, the CollegeBoard expanded their offerings with two new career and technical focused exams courses on cybersecurity and personal finance/business principles.
That doesn’t mean Alamo Heights, or other schools that offer AP, will automatically add those courses to their class catalog.
In order for the high school to consider adding new AP subjects to its class list, at least 28 students must express interest in taking it. After that, district officials determine whether the class has a Texas catalog number and the final decision is taken to the school board for approval.
Last year, 51% of Alamo Heights students took at least one AP exam. Their enrollment for the 2023-24 school year was 1,538.
Walker said that AP courses at the high school are open enrollment, and students must maintain a 70 or higher to stay in the class.
This year, the school district also implemented a rule that students who enroll in AP classes must take the accompanying College Board exam.
“We have found, with our own data, that students who know they’re taking the test are a little more motivated throughout the course,” Walker said. “We also don’t want any student missing out on the opportunity to earn college credit.”
CollegeBoard offers exam fee waivers for qualifying students and schools may offer scholarships or financial aid.
At IDEA Public Schools, a charter school network that has 10 K-12 campuses in San Antonio, students can take AP exams for free.
IDEA follows an “AP for All” model, opening the courses to any interested students and paying all of the exam fees, said Nina Avila, the regional director of college success for IDEA San Antonio.
Compared to dual credit, Avila said AP is a better option, especially for students who may want to go out of state for college.
“AP for All is truly better, because most universities will take all the courses,” Avila told the Report.
While schools usually accept a score of three or higher, some institutions may only grant credit if a student scored four or five on an AP exam. Some institutions may only accept a limited number of AP courses, regardless of a student’s score, preferring the student to take their version of the class.
Across their campuses, IDEA offers 20 to 25 AP classes, sometimes offering up to 30 classes, Avila said.
On average, she added, IDEA students graduate high school with six to nine hours of college credits, shaving money and time off their college tuition and enrollment in the future.
Aside from the benefit of college credits, Heather Slomchinski-Smith, an AP high school teacher at IDEA Carver on the city’s East Side, said AP classes prepare students for life after graduation by building college skills, implementing study habits and teaching pupils how to advocate for themselves.
“I’m always tougher with my AP students than I am with my regular students because that’s what a professor is going to be,” Slomchinski-Smith said. “We don’t want to just teach you at the base level. We want to teach you higher than that.”
IDEA also encourages students to independently study and test for AP courses the charter doesn’t offer.
Current college students can also take AP tests for credit if their institution allows.
Kingslien, currently studying for eight AP courses, will take five of them on his own, since IDEA Carver doesn’t offer classes for those subjects — AP Environmental Science, AP Calculus BC, AP Psychology, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism and AP Physics C: Mechanics.
He’s what IDEA administrators call an “AP Scholar,” since he’s scored a three or higher on at least three AP exams.
Both Avila and Walker, administrators for charter and public schools respectively, agree that AP classes are a good preparation tool for high schoolers to get used to the rigors of college courses.
Kingslien, who plans to study aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech, said taking AP classes prepared him for college and beyond by making him a “well rounded individual.”
“Even if I didn’t go into college, I would still be an informed person that would still have a lot more breadth of knowledge than I would had I just taken regular courses.”
