Florida Passes Bill to Promote AP Class Alternative

Florida’s Legislature passed a bill last week to further plans to develop college-readiness courses to compete with Advanced Placement, called Florida Advanced Courses and Test, or FACT, Politico reported. The legislation will allow school districts and teachers to earn bonuses for offering FACT courses, offering teachers a $50 bonus for each of their students who achieves a certain grade on a FACT exam. Such bonuses are on par with those offered for AP and International Baccalaureate courses.

FACT originated in 2023 amid disagreements between the state government and the College Board over AP African American studies courses. This past fall, the state launched FACT’s first pilot courses in algebra at some high schools. Public Florida colleges and universities will accept FACT credits, but institutions in other states do not.

Some Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about whether FACT classes are as rigorous as APs and IBs. They also expressed worry that parents might erroneously believe FACT scores can give them a leg up in college admissions outside of Florida.

“Who is making up these advanced courses, and are they truly equivalent, or are we just giving them an equivalent weight?” said Democratic state representative Felicia Simone Robinson. “Because if we are, and this is a course that we’re just making up for Florida and it’s not necessarily equivalent to the AP and IB courses, then we’re putting our students at a disadvantage when they’re trying to compete against other students in the United States.”

Florida’s Department of Education has defended the courses as “rigorous, high-quality academic options aligned to the state’s education priorities.”