In the golden olden days (until three years ago), AP classes were taught by the best teachers who were given only the best students and told to teach them what they knew best, and the classes met every day, unlike regular classes. I taught my first AP English class in Naples in 1974 and my students during my time earned passing rates up to 84%. These classes were provided extra money for extra books and supplies. Teachers were paid a bonus for every student who passed the test. Students earned _six_ credits or semester hours in the subject for passing with a 4 or 5. Teachers were told by the College Board: don't emphasize preparing for the test; teach only what you know best about the subject. No wonder I loved my job! Since the school reformers (and testitis) took over, AP classes have been radically changed. The College Board now has to certify a class as AP by analyzing the course syllabus to see if it conforms to their criteria. Since the Rockfordization of CCPS, Colonel Thompson and Martha (whose sister taught AP English in Tennessee) say that they don't like and won't provide time and teachers for the historically small-sized AP classes. One year my AP class at LHS consisted of only six students. The current top administrators think the best students should take dual enrollment classes or on-line classes in order to earn college credit while in high school. Colonel Thompson even (erroneously) believes that the best universities won't accept a 4 or 5 on an AP test for college credit. Another gravely deleterious practice is the now pervasive mainstreaming. Instead of selecting only the best students for enrollment in AP, anyone can choose to participate. Not to mention the Rockfordian belief that the teacher assigned to AP doesn't matter at all. There are AP classes "taught" by instructors who haven't even majored in the subject of the AP course and are wholly unfamiliar with the course materials. So the "flap" over AP that supposedly caused the fall of Superintendent Baker has significance far beyond the NHS parking place lost by the number 10 student in the class when a transfer student from Community School bumped the NHS student to eleventh place, and she had to park where ordinary students do. The school board chose Colonel Thompson's law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP to investigate course credit issues as well as questions students and parents raised about Collier County schools. The report indicates that some students were receiving different credit for taking the same course. What was happening was that the best students were placed in the best classes with the best teachers regardless of the names of previous courses they had earned credit in. One of my students had taken my AP course during her junior year when it met only every other day. When she compared what she had studied with what students received when the course had been a daily class, she felt she missed a great deal, even though she had already scored a 5 on the end of the year exam. Guidance permitted her at her and her parents' request to take AP English Lit. again during her senior year when it was meeting every day, but it had to be named something different on her transcript. The senior year course name for her was thus Classical Literature. So, she took my course for every other day during her junior year and every day her senior year. The other students had regular transcripts and received credit for AP English Literature. So the evil Mr. Baker permitted such things to happen. The student, by the way, went off to one of the nation's best universities and received 36 semester hours of credit for all her AP courses, effectively entering as a sophomore. Such things have been forbidden since. And no wonder, with the rise of Colonel Thompson, I and my wife (also a Ph.D. in English from Notre Dame) were casualties of Ms. Abbott, Ms. Carroll, and Mr. Donovan's Shaking Up the Schoolhouse. Nobody needs real academics teaching high school! Except students.