[Principled]

High schools will label any course “AP” even if it bears no resemblance to the College Board’s AP course/exam requirements.

Anyone who chooses to pay for the AP exam may take it, not just those enrolled in the classes. The intent of the class is to prepare students for the AP exam that may provide varying degrees of college credit.

iHigh schools will label any course “AP” even if it bears no resemblance to the College Board’s AP course/exam requirements.

Importantly, the AP exams are written and scored by the college board (the AP people), so it is folly to name a course AP in hopes of kids earning AP credit. That doesn't happen. The only way AP credit may be earned is by achieving a particular score on AP's exam which is graded by AP. Schools can't willy nilly provide AP credit.

[SoftballMominVA]

Actually, as of this spring, teachers have to submit their syllabi, tests, and other prep materials to the college board and the college board will decide if the class meets the standard of “AP” What will happen to some kids is that the AP designation on their transcripts will be changed to ‘honors’ because the class didn’t meet up to the standard needed. The only thing a school can provide is the weight, which may be worthless anyway since the overwhelming majority of colleges want an unweighted GPA