Guidance Counselors and the Master Schedule

I was down at Guidance, talking to them about AP Calculus / Calculus for next year. They had sent me a list of those students they felt would be taking Calc. Needless to say, their idea of "able and willing" did not match the students' nor the math faculty's. Of course, assuming that 30% of the senior class should be in Calc is rather funny, too.

What is it about administration that feels that a student who has finished Pre-Calculus with a D or a C, can't score above a 500 on the SAT math, hasn't yet taken trig and isn't real enthused about math in general, is somehow a candidate for AP Calc?

Of course, her comment that the paper in her lap was the locked-in Master Schedule amused me, too. The students, you see, hadn't signed up for courses yet. The schedule in her lap wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.