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Advanced Placement

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Advanced Placement
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The Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States created by the College Board offering college-level curriculum and examinations to high school students. American colleges often grant placement and course credit to students who obtain high scores on the examinations. The AP curriculum for the various subjects is created for the College Board by a panel of experts and college-level educators in each subject. For a high school course to have the AP designation, the course must be audited by the College Board to ascertain it satisfies the AP curriculum. If the course is approved the school may use the AP designation and the course will be publicly listed on the AP Ledger.

The most taken AP exam in 2008 was AP United States History with 346,641 students, and the least taken was AP Italian Language and Culture with 1,930 students.

History

After the end of World War II, the Ford Foundation created a fund that supported committees studying education.[1] The program, which was then referred to as the "Kenyon Plan,"[2] was founded and pioneered at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, by the then college president Gordon Chalmers. The first study was conducted by three prep schools—the Lawrenceville School, Phillips Academy and Phillips Exeter Academy—and three universities—Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale University. In 1952 they issued the report General Education in School and College: A Committee Report which recommended allowing high school seniors to study college level material and to take achievement exams that allowed them to attain college credit for this work.[3] The second committee, the Committee on Admission with Advanced Standing, developed and implemented the plan to choose a curriculum. A pilot program was run in 1952 which covered eleven disciplines.

The College Board, a non-profit organization[4] based in New York City, has run the AP program since 1955.[5] From 1965 to 1989, Harlan Hanson was the director of the Advanced Placement Program.[6] It develops and maintains guidelines for the teaching of higher level courses in various subject areas. In addition, it supports teachers of AP courses, and supports universities.[7] These activities are funded through fees charged to students taking AP Exams.

In 2006, over one million students took over two million Advanced Placement examinations.[8] Many high schools in the United States offer AP courses,[9] though the College Board allows any student to take any examination, regardless of participation in its respective course.[10] Therefore, home-schooled students and students from schools that do not offer AP courses have an equal opportunity to take the examination.

As of the 2011 testing season, exams cost $87 each,[11] though the cost may be subsidized by local or state programs. Financial aid is available for students who qualify for it; the exam reduction is $22 per exam from College Board plus an additional $8 rebate per fee-reduced exam from the school. There may be further reductions depending on the state. Out of the $87, $8 goes directly to the school to pay for the administration of the test, which some schools will reduce to lower the cost to the student.

On April 3, 2008, the College Board announced that four AP courses – French Literature, Latin Literature, Computer Science AB, and Italian Language and Culture – would be discontinued after the 2008–2009 school year due to lack of funding.[12][13]

Scoring

AP tests are scored on a 1 to 5 scale as follows:[14]

  • 5 – Extremely well qualified
  • 4 – Well qualified
  • 3 – Qualified
  • 2 – Possibly qualified
  • 1 – No recommendation

Grading the AP exam is a long and complicated process. The multiple choice component of the exam is scored by computer, while the free response and essay portions are scored by trained Readers at the AP Reading each June. The scores on various components are weighted and combined into a raw Composite Score. The Chief Reader for each exam then decides on the grade cutoffs for that year's exam, which determine how the Composite Scores are converted into the final grades. During the process a number of reviews and statistical analyses are performed to ensure that the grading is reliable. The overall goal is for the grades to reflect an absolute scale of performance which can be compared from year to year.[15]

Some colleges use AP test scores to exempt students from introductory coursework. Each college's policy is different (see link below), but most require a minimum score of 3 or 4 to receive college credit.[16] Typically this appears as a "CR" grade on the college transcript, although some colleges and universities will award an A grade for a 5 score.[17] Some countries, such as Germany, that do not offer general admission to their universities and colleges for holders of an American high school diploma without lengthy preparatory courses will directly admit students who have completed a specific set of AP tests, depending on the subject they wish to study there.

In addition, completing AP courses help students qualify for various types of scholarships. According to the College Board, 31 percent of colleges and universities look at AP experience when making scholarship decisions.[18]

Beginning with the May 2011 AP Exam administration, the College Board changed the scoring of AP Exams.[19][20] Total scores on the multiple-choice section are now based on the number of questions answered correctly. Points are no longer deducted for incorrect answers and, as was the case before, no points are awarded for unanswered questions. However, scoring requirements have also been increased.

Exam subsidies

Recognizing that the cost could be an impediment to students of limited means, a number of states and municipalities independent of the College Board have partially or fully subsidized the cost. For example, the state of Florida reimburses schools districts for the exam costs of students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the Montebello Unified School District, the Hawaii Department of Education, New York City Department of Education, and the state of Indiana subsidize all AP Examination fees in subjects of math and science, and the Edmonds School District in suburban Seattle currently subsidizes Advanced Placement fees of students who enroll in the free school lunch program. In addition some school districts offer free tests to all students enrolled in any Advanced Placement class.

Advanced Placement courses

There are currently 34 courses and exams available through the AP Program. A complete list can be found below:

Along with 2 future courses to be offered in 2014

Criticism

Faculty at a number of universities have doubted the value of a passing AP score. Students who receive scores of 3 or sometimes 4, but not the perfect 5, are being given college credit at fewer universities. Academic departments cite the increasing number of students who take AP courses but are not ready for college-level work. [21]

Research conducted by Philip M. Sadler and published in AP: A critical examination of the Advanced Placement program found that students who took AP courses in the sciences but failed the AP exam performed no better in college science courses than students without any AP course at all. Referring to students who complete the course but fail the exam, Sadler stated in an interview that "research shows that they don’t appear to have learned anything during the year, so there is probably a better course for them".[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ "A Brief History of the Advanced Placement Program" (PDF). College Board. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 5, 2009. Retrieved January 29, 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Historical Markers: Kenyon College". Kenyon College. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
  3. ^ Stanley N. Katz (March 10, 2006). "The Liberal Arts in School and College". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  4. ^ About the College Board from collegeboard.com
  5. ^ The History of the AP Program from collegeboard.com
  6. ^ DiYanni, Robert (2008). "The History of AP Program". CollegeBoard.com. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  7. ^ The Advanced Placement Program from collegeboard.com
  8. ^ Program Summary Report 2006 from collegeboard.com
  9. ^ AP Fact Sheet from collegeboard.com
  10. ^ AP: Frequently Asked Questions from collegeboard.com
  11. ^ http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/ap/about/fees
  12. ^ de Vise, Daniel (April 4, 2008). "AP Language, Computer Courses Cut". The Washington Post. {{cite news}}: Text "accessdate-2011-01-21" ignored (help)
  13. ^ Important Announcement about AP Italian Language and Culture from collegeboard.com
  14. ^ AP: The Score-Setting Process from Collegeboard.com
  15. ^ "AP Central – Exam Scoring". College Board. Archived from the original on January 13, 2008.
  16. ^ Understanding AP Exams from PathAspire.com
  17. ^ Multiple-Choice Scores from collegeboard.com
  18. ^ College Board. "AP Program". Retrieved August 5, 2012., citing "Unpublished institutional research, Crux Research, Inc. March 2007."
  19. ^ "Guess What? Taking AP Exams Just Got Easier". ParentDish. 2010. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
  20. ^ Finnegan, Leah (August 11, 2010). "AP Eliminates Guessing Penalty On Tests". Huffington Post.
  21. ^ Zimar, Heather (2005). "Universities Raise Standards for Earning Advanced Placement Credit". SEM Source: An Update on State of the Art Student Services (January 2005). American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  22. ^ Hood, Lucy; Sadler, Philip M. (2010). "Putting AP to the Test: New research assesses the Advanced Placement program". Harvard Education Letter. 26 (May/June 2010). Retrieved November 7, 2012.

Further reading

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