Overview
- AP allows students to pursue college-level studies while still in high school;
- Nearly 60 percent of US high schools participate in AP;
- Over 900,000 students worldwide took AP exams in 2002;
- More than 60,000 teachers across the country attend AP workshops and institutes for professional development each year;
- Most of the nation's colleges and universities and colleges and universities in 22 countries, have an AP policy granting incoming students credit, placement or both for qualifying AP exam grades;
- College Board programs like Pre-AP are preparing an unprecedented number of middle school and high school students, especially those from underserved populations for challenging college-level coursework.
AP Courses and Exams
- Thirty four AP courses and exams are offered in 19 subject areas;
- A committee of college faculty and experienced AP teachers develops each course and exam;
- Bates, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Princeton, UCLA and University of Texas at Austin are a few of the institutions at which AP development committee members currently teach;
Benefits of AP
- Students get a head start on the work they will confront in college;
- Many teachers who participate in AP professional development improve as teachers in general, not just as teachers of AP;
- AP schools often experience a diffusion of higher academic standards throughout the entire curriculum;
- Colleges admit students prepared to tackle rigorous coursework. Students who have taken AP courses have higher bachelor's degree completion rates, according to a 1999 US Department of Education study, Answers in the Tool Box;
- Studies have shown that AP students are more likely to maintain a high grade point average and graduate from college with honors than their college classmates of similar ability and are more likely to take additional college courses within the discipline of their AP coursework
Preserving AP Quality
- Colleges and universities are surveyed every few years to determine the breadth of information, skills and assignments covered by corresponding college courses;
- Development committees use the survey results to ensure that AP exams reflect the current course content at colleges and universities nationwide.
- To ensure that students' AP exam grades accurately correlate to college-level achievement, portions of the AP exam are administered to college students who have completed the corresponding college course, so that their performance on the AP exam can be compared to their performance in the college course (as measured by their test and course grades.) This information is used to guide the setting of the AP exam grades.
Ensuring AP's Continuous Improvement
- The college board formed the Commission on the Future of the Advanced Placement Program® to guide AP's growth and development.
- AP is working with students, parents, teachers, schools, colleges and government officials to ensure that the following recommendations are put into place:
- Focus on expanding access to AP in underserved schools and for underserved populations, while continuing to maintain AP's high quality;
- Provide unconditional support for preparing teachers, schools and school systems to offer high-quality AP programs;
- Engage leaders in the disciplines, pedagogy, and research to ensure that current reforms and best practices are reflected in AP;
- Develop and disseminate AP quality standards and accelerate rigorous research efforts to provide continued validation of AP exam grades;
- Provide explicit guidelines and information about the appropriate use of AP and AP examination standards
- The College Board is working with the National Academy of Sciences to revise the content of AP science courses so that they accurately reflect the corresponding college courses and the best of college instruction
Promising News
- A study by the TIMSS Study Center shows that AP students measure up to the best math and science students in the world:
- AP Calculus students with grades of 3 or better on the AP exams outperformed advanced or honors students from each of the 18 countries that participated in the study;
- AP Physics students who received a grade of 3 or better in the AP Physics B or C exams performed as well as physics students from the top-performing nations of Norway, Sweden and the Russian Federation.
- The total number of students taking AP exams increased by 11 percent in 2002.
- The number of African American students taking exams increased by 13 percent;
- The number of Latino students taking exams increased by 14 percent;
- The number of low-income students taking exams increased by 16 percent
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