New AP Precalculus Lacks 25% of Exam Content

While AP Precalculus was intended to expand access to advanced math, math reformers were not happy about it. Reformers successfully lobbied the College Board to scale back the content of the AP Precalculus exam; as such, it is best suited for Regular Precalculus students. Despite this, APS replaced Intensified Precalculus with AP Precalculus and is continuing to offer Regular Precalculus. We ask APS to reverse this mismatch in SY 2024-25 by bringing back Intensified Precalculus and swapping AP Precalculus for Regular Precalculus. 

Background:  AP Precalculus was created to “prepare a much broader group of students to thrive in college math courses, regardless of where they start in high school math”. It offers students who take Algebra I in 9th grade an opportunity to earn AP math credits just as students who take Algebra I in 8th grade can earn AP credits in calculus. These AP Precalculus credits can provide college course credit at some colleges and can be used to bypass college math proficiency tests, thus removing key barriers to college completion.

Reaction to the new AP Precalculus course was mixed: It was lauded by many equity advocates as a way of increasing the number of underrepresented students taking advanced math and diversifying the STEM pipeline. However, math reformers were not happy about elevating precalculus to AP status, fearing it could undermine the effort to shift students away from the calculus pathway and might limit state efforts to reshape precalculus in their math pathways reforms.

Reformers secured changes that reduced the rigor of AP Precalculus: Once it was apparent that AP Precalculus would be launched, reformers, including Stanford Education Professor Jo Boaler, lobbied the College Board to pare down its content. This was surprising as the original draft’s content was similar to that of standard precalculus courses. However, reformers wanted to open up space for student-directed learning and real-world applications. Their efforts were successful. In November 2022, the College Board released the final version of the AP Precalculus exam which contained 25% less content than the earlier May 2022 draft. The majority of the AP Precalculus exam now focuses on Algebra II concepts, while the more difficult precalculus topics were placed in an optional section that can be covered at teacher discretion. One leading reformer expressed the hope that the AP Precalculus revisions would inform future AP Calculus revisions, which warns that AP Calculus may ultimately face similar rigor-reducing pressures as well.

Examples of Reduced Rigor in AP Precalculus Include:

• AP exam excludes the more challenging precalculus content.

• Not designed specifically to prepare for AP Calculus. The College Board designed the course with the idea that “as AP Precalculus may be the last mathematics course of a student’s secondary education, the course is structured to provide a coherent capstone experience and is not exclusively focused on preparation for future courses.” (Framework, Page 8) The College Board built AP Precalculus around the theme of functions (Video 2 6:48), similar to what the now-cancelled Virginia Math Pathways Initiative (VMPI) proposed in its Precalculus – Focus on Functions course. As a result of this focus on functions, the College Board excluded crucial concepts for AP Calculus BC, such as series and sigma notation. (Video 2 38:24 ) AP Precalculus will also have students spend time doing regressions (Video 2 28:18), which are not needed for AP Calculus.

•  Emphasis on modeling real world scenarios with technology vs. traditional precalculus courses which are faster paced and more focused on pure math. While interesting and intended to appeal to a wider range of students, this time-intensive modeling approach limits the amount of content that can be covered. (Framework, Page 8)

• College Board’s expectation that “most students will take AP Precalculus as seniors” (Video 1 Slide 10:18). This comports with AP Precalculus being crafted to provide additional opportunities for students taking Algebra I in 9th grade.

• Limited prerequisites (e.g., no prior exposure to logarithms assumed (Video 1 6:47)), with the College Board noting that “every student ready for precalculus is ready for AP Precalculus” and advising districts not to restrict access to AP Precalculus to just honors students. (Video 1 17:15)  Thus, the level of rigor is geared toward Regular not Intensified Precalculus students.  

Local School Districts’ Implementation: The College Board’s advice notwithstanding, APS and some FCPS high schools opted to replace honors precalculus with AP Precalculus and are continuing to offer non-honors precalculus. (Both districts’ AP Precalculus courses will include the optional section to ensure that all standard precalculus content is covered. However, the key question is whether the more challenging, optional content gets crammed into the limited post-exam period or whether it is introduced pre-exam in a more measured fashion.) District implementation plans were surprising:

·       Many honors precalculus students don’t need AP Precalculus credits since they will take AP Calculus the following year. In fact, FCPS’s McLean High School advised its calculus-bound students NOT to take the AP Precalculus exam since colleges generally don’t allow two credits in the same sequence. In contrast, many honors students do need a precalculus course specifically designed to prepare them for calculus.

·       Non-honors precalculus students are being denied an opportunity to gain AP math credits even though AP Precalculus was designed to be accessible to them. These are the students who would find AP Precalculus credits particularly valuable.

FCPS’s McLean High School has countered the rigor-reducing features of AP Precalculus for honors students by modifying the course to spend less time on Algebra II review, covering some optional precalculus topics before the AP exam, and adding in foundational concepts for calculus. They stated the following:

We are going to add in additional topics not in the AP College Board curriculum. The goal of this course is to prepare students for AP Calculus. The BC calculus students in particular will need to have seen more content than what is covered in AP Precalculus … Those topics that we will add in are parametric equations and vector valued functions, limits and continuity and an introduction to derivatives. (McLean HS AP Precalculus video 2:52)

Conclusion:  For SY 2023-24, APS should follow McLean High School’s lead and increase the rigor of its AP Precalculus course to ensure intensified students receive adequate preparation for calculus. However, for SY 2024-25 and beyond,we urge APS to bring back Intensified Precalculus and replace Regular Precalculus with AP Precalculus instead. This would provide intensified students with rigorous preparation for calculus without the need to adjust the AP Precalculus curriculum to fit their needs and would enhance equity by providing students taking 9th grade Algebra I with more opportunities to secure AP math credits. A win-win.