The challenge of AP courses

Charles Herbert Flowers High School, one of Prince George's County's newer schools, has always set high standards for its students and seems to be meeting them. It is one of three high schools in the county with a science and technology program. In 2009, it met all federal targets for adequate yearly progress. Its graduation rate was 82 percent, well above the national average. Its 12th-grade passing rate was above 80 percent on state tests.

Yet, it was one of the few schools in the Washington area refusing to let average students challenge themselves in an Advanced Placement course. Students were told this year that AP English, biology, American history, calculus and most of the other college-level courses at the school were open only to those with at least a 3.0 grade-point average. They also had to have written permission from a teacher.