NEW YORK — The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) is changing AP courses and exams in three disciplines — world languages, history and science. Revisions to AP French Language and Culture, AP German Language and Culture, and AP World History will be implemented first, effective for the 2011-12 academic year.
"AP is the gold standard in American education and the leading program in high schools offering college-level course work to students, and these changes will spread best practices across AP classrooms worldwide," said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board. "More than ever before, the high standards found within the AP Program will have the power to transform schools and lives."
The revisions were developed by expert committees of faculty, practitioners and scientists from many of the nation's finest colleges, universities and secondary schools. The changes will sharpen the focus of individual courses to foster students' capacity to think and reason in a deeper way. The new course materials more clearly articulate the learning objectives of each course and will help teachers organize and focus their curricula in ways that are consistent with best practices in teaching and learning.
"These developments directly support what many AP teachers are already doing to deliver great college-level courses: integrating concepts and skills so that students develop a depth of understanding that they will carry forward into further college studies and their careers," said College Board Vice President Trevor Packer, who is responsible for the leadership of the AP Program.
Developments in AP French Language and Culture and AP German Language and Culture
While the current courses and exams build important student skills in listening, speaking, writing and reading, the new curricula will focus students on developing and using their communication skills in a completely integrated way. Accordingly, the revised curricula were created to align with the three modes of communication — interpersonal, interpretive and presentational — defined in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century1 and will encourage an increased use of contemporary, authentic multimedia sources for instruction and real-life interaction.
In order to promote an integration of language, content and culture, the courses will be structured around six broad themes: global challenges; science and technology; contemporary life; personal and public identities; families and communities; and beauty and aesthetics. These themes will promote not only improved communication skills but also the cultural perspectives essential to global citizenry. Students will be well prepared to pursue majors, double majors or minors as they continue their language studies in college. Similar changes to AP Chinese Language and Culture, AP Japanese Language and Culture, and AP Spanish Language and Culture are planned for future years and will be announced at least two years before being implemented. With these changes, all five courses and exams will be based on a common framework for developing language proficiency.
Developments in the AP World History course and exam
Revisions to AP World History will help teachers manage the breadth of world history by focusing on key concepts across six chronological periods, from approximately 8000 B.C.E. to the present.
With the key concepts providing a foundation for the course, AP World History students will reach beyond memorization and, instead, apply historical thinking skills to understand the significance of facts, events and dates within the historical developments of world history. These skills include crafting historical arguments and comparing, interpreting and synthesizing a variety of historical sources and perspectives. The key concepts will help teachers and their students understand, organize and prioritize historical developments within each designated period and foster in students a deep understanding of world history.
Parallel changes to AP U.S. History and AP European History are also planned for coming years and will be announced at least two years before they will be implemented. Through the introduction of key concepts and common historical thinking skills into each course, there will be a greater degree of alignment across the three AP history subjects.
Developments in AP science courses and exams
Given the speed with which scientific discoveries and research continuously expand scientific knowledge, many educators are faced with the challenge of balancing breadth of content coverage with depth of understanding. The upcoming changes to AP science support AP teachers in their efforts to foster students' deep conceptual understanding of science by reducing the emphasis on broad content coverage and emphasizing the practice of scientific inquiry and reasoning. Moreover, the new curriculum also includes the study of contemporary developments in science.
Changes to select AP science courses and exams will take effect in the 2012-13 academic year, although teachers may be encouraged to begin incorporating the new laboratory experiences sooner so that the degree of change needed for the 2012-13 academic year is spread across years. The specific science courses and exams for which the revisions will take effect in 2012-13 will be announced in early 2010, so that the AP community for those subjects will have sufficient time to incorporate the changes into their teaching.
Additional details about these changes to AP history, science and world languages can be found online at http://www.collegeboard.com/ap/coursechanges, a website designed especially to support the AP community with information about these developments. The site offers educators and students the latest information about the revisions, as well as resources, and professional development opportunities to support teachers in making these changes to their AP courses.
About the Advanced Placement Program®
The College Board's Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) enables students to pursue college-level studies while still in high school. Through more than 30 college-level courses, each culminating in a rigorous exam, AP provides willing and academically prepared students with the opportunity to earn college credit and/or advanced placement. Taking AP courses also demonstrates to college admission officers that students have sought out the most rigorous curriculum available to them. Each AP teacher’s syllabus is evaluated and approved by college faculty from some of the nation's leading institutions, and AP Exams are developed and scored by college faculty and experienced AP teachers. AP is accepted by more than 3,600 colleges and universities worldwide for college credit, advanced placement or both on the basis of successful AP Exam scores. This includes over 90 percent of four-year institutions in the United States. In 2009, students representing over 17,000 schools around the world, both public and nonpublic, took AP Exams.
The College Board
The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board is composed of more than 5,600 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. Each year, the College Board serves seven million students and their parents, 23,000 high schools, and 3,800 colleges through major programs and services in college readiness, college admission, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning. Among its best-known programs are the SAT®, the PSAT/NMSQT® and the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®). The College Board is committed to the principles of excellence and equity, and that commitment is embodied in all of its programs, services, activities and concerns. For further information, visit www.collegeboard.com.
Contact
Jennifer Topiel, The College Board, 212-713-8052, communications@collegeboard.org
1 http://www.actfl.org/files/public/StandardsforFLLexecsumm_rev.pdf