NEW YORK — From July 19 to 22, more than 3,000 Advanced Placement® educators will gather at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., for the 11th College Board AP Annual Conference — the largest professional development gathering for AP and Pre-AP® educators, counselors and administrators. During the four-day conference, AP educators will share teaching strategies, learn about methods to increase access and equity to AP course work, and have the opportunity to network and share best practices with other dedicated AP educators from throughout the U.S. and around the world. In addition to plenary sessions featuring authors Tony Wagner and Craig Kielburger, AP educators will have the opportunity to participate in more than 300 sessions and professional development workshops geared to promote innovation in AP education.
“The AP Annual Conference provides a unique opportunity for educators to participate in professional development activities that will support and inform their work in AP and Pre-AP classrooms throughout the world,” said Trevor Packer, senior vice president of Advanced Placement and College Readiness for the College Board. “Thanks to the continued hard work and dedication of the AP community, more students than ever are participating and succeeding in AP, and gaining the critical thinking and analytical skills they will need to succeed in college and today’s global economy.”
PLENARY SESSIONS
- Craig Kielburger is the cofounder of the international charity Free the Children — which delivers innovative programming to more than 3,500 youth groups and hundreds of thousands of young people in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Using themes found in his New York Times best seller, Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World, Kielburger will introduce his powerful “Me to We” philosophy and share remarkable stories of change and tangible actions anyone can take to improve the local and global community. (Thursday, July 19, 5–6 p.m.)
- Tony Wagner is a Harvard University Innovation Education Fellow and author of Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. Wagner will discuss the skills necessary to ensure this generation’s economic future — addressing what parents, teachers, mentors and employers should do to develop the capacity of many more young people to be innovators — and will offer suggestions for what high schools and colleges can do to teach the skills of innovation. (Friday, July 20, 2–3 p.m.)
- Rethinking Rigor in High School Course Work: Toward Deep Knowing and Equity in Advanced Placement Courses. Steve Arnold, cofounder and vice chairman of The George Lucas Educational Foundation; Amber M. Graeber, curriculum coordinator for Des Moines Public Schools; and Walter C. Parker, professor in curriculum and instruction at the College of Education at University of Washington, discuss how project-based learning can reach a wider range of students with different learning styles and from various socioeconomic backgrounds.
(Friday, July 20, 5:15–6:15 p.m.)
OTHER EVENT HIGHLIGHTS will include:
- David Coleman, the College Board’s recently appointed, incoming president, will host a teacher town hall meeting to answer questions and share his vision for the College Board and the AP Program in particular. (Friday, July 20, 10:45 a.m.--12:00 p.m.)
- AP Report to the Nation: A Closer Look at the Nation and Florida. Ellen Sawtell and Jacqueline Gillie from the College Board and Patricia Z. Smith from Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Fla., will provide a deeper look at key information for the nation, with an emphasis on Florida. Learn how one school in Florida uses AP Potential™ to build its AP program. The discussion’s focus will be about AP participation and performance in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. An analysis by race and ethnicity will also be provided. Panelists will offer insight on the growing Hispanic/Latino student population in AP and will discuss how the AP population has changed over the past 10 years. (Friday, July 20, 3:30–4:45 p.m.)
- The College Board’s Voices of AP panel, to be moderated by John Quiñones, co-anchor of ABC newsmagazine Primetime, will celebrate the second annual AP District of the Year winners from Copiague, N.Y.; Polk County Public Schools in Bartow, Fla., and the Val Verde School District in Perris, Calif. The panel discussion will be centered on the strategies these districts used to open AP classrooms to a significantly broader pool of students while maintaining or improving students’ AP Exam performance. Featured speakers will include Johnathan Allen and Ruben Aponte—two extraordinary former AP students from Polk County, Fla. who both overcame personal challenges to succeed in AP, enroll in college, and plan for successful careers ahead. (Saturday, July 21, 1:15–2:15 p.m.)
For a complete list of AP Annual Conference sessions, visit http://apac.collegeboard.org/.
About the Advanced Placement Program®
The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) enables willing and academically prepared students to pursue college-level studies — with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement or both — while still in high school. Through AP courses in 34 subjects, each culminating in a rigorous exam, students learn to think critically, construct solid arguments and see many sides of an issue — skills that prepare them for college and beyond. Taking AP courses demonstrates to college admission officers that students have sought the most rigorous curriculum available to them, and research indicates that students who score a 3 or higher on an AP Exam typically experience greater academic success in college and are more likely to earn a college degree than non-AP students. Each AP teacher’s syllabus is evaluated and approved by faculty from some of the nation’s leading colleges and universities, and AP Exams are developed and scored by college faculty and experienced AP teachers. Most four-year colleges and universities in the United States grant credit, advanced placement or both on the basis of successful AP Exam scores — more than 3,600 institutions worldwide annually receive AP scores. In the last decade, participation in the AP Program has more than doubled and graduates succeeding on AP Exams have nearly doubled. In May 2011, nearly two million students representing more than 18,000 schools around the world, both public and nonpublic, took 3.4 million AP Exams.
About the College Board
The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made up of over 6,000 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education. Each year, the College Board helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success — including the SAT® and the Advanced Placement Program®. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators and schools. For further information, visit www.collegeboard.org.
Contact:
Deborah Davis, The College Board, 212-713-8052, communications@collegeboard.org