Last month we looked at the proportion of students taking high school physics by various types of course. You may recall that the proportion of students enrolled in AP Physics 2, AP Physics C, and second-year courses appeared to drop by half from about 17% in 2013 (when it was AP Physics B, AP Physics C, and second-year courses) to 8% in 2019. (We label using the spring semester of the academic year.)
The 2014-15 academic year was the first year that AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 were offered; AP Physics B was offered for the last time during the 2013-14 academic year. At that time, the College Board “strongly recommended that both Physics B and Physics C be taught as second-year courses.”1 Effective fall 2020, the same was still true for AP Physics C.2 The College Board also recommends that “[s]tudents should have completed AP...