Hot take: eliminate AP classes and credits entirely. Instead, teens that want college credit should have free access to dual enrollment programs under their state university system to earn college credit via college classes. AP test incentives are misaligned in the worst way: "Students and families are happier because they get college credit. . . . Schools are happier because they look good. Governors and state agencies are happier because they get to brag about it.” Dual enrollment does not resolve every incentive problem, but it at least eliminates one layer of abstraction. It also can help reduce the cost of college by shifting some general requirements into the academic stagnation that is high school. This could be the simplest way to pivot American high schools toward tracking, too, so long as students not looking at college are also able to access courses that lead toward interests and industry certification. To anyone who defends AP classes are the last leg of meritocracy in schools, I'd argue it's more meritocratic to not gate keep the real thing just because someone is slightly younger than a college freshman. The ceiling can be much higher. It is possible, as the College Board suggests, that "AP standards for qualifying scores remain more stringent than grading standards in many college classrooms." Sure; but that's an issue for the state colleges to resolve. College students regularly transfer in with community college credits for these introductory courses, so the colleges have already determined that AP tests are unnecessary. AP tests are the signature of a decades-long evolution of high schools choosing college prep over life prep, so it's not a unqualified scapegoat to begin moving in another direction. I welcome any steel man against this idea.