Tag: Advanced Placement Courses Makeover Part 2

The Advanced Placement Courses & Exams

Advanced Placement (AP) courses, created by the Unites States College Board, are college-level curricula offered by universities or colleges to high school students. Grant placement and course credit is often given to those who obtain high scores on the examinations. Currently, there are more than 30 existing Advance Placement courses on multiple subject matters offered.

The Advanced Placement Courses had a long history. It started after the Second World War the program was pioneered by prep schools until them issues a report allowing high school seniors to study college-level material and take an achievement exam that allows college credit for high scorers. A pilot program was run during 1952. Ever since, millions and millions of students each year take Advance Placement examinations to qualify.

The College Board allows students to take any exam no matter what course he is participating under. This means that students studying online and those from schools without Advance Placement courses can equally take the examination.

AS of 2015, each exam costs $91, though financial support is given by local and state programs. For students who qualify, they are given discounts. Additional reduction depends by state. The number of AP exams keep on climbing up each year.

Wondering about the exam structure, the questions and time to finish the exam depends on the subject. The test consist of multiple choices, essay, and questions with short answers. The score rate is from 1 to 5. AP credits vary from school to school. Some offer Advanced Placement Courses for a rating of at least 3. Taking the exam does not mean you have to take the AP courses. If you consider sitting for the AP exam, you can register from your school coordinator. This person will tell you the cost and venue of the exam.

Advanced Placement Courses Makeover Part 2

Consider the effort to advertise value through advanced placement courses.  For many, reformers tried to use the system as a handle for giving under-served learners an excellent acceptance edge.  After all, in the last years of the last millennium, institutions seemed positive on learners with AP programs on their transcripts.  But most AP programs were administered at private and suburban academic institutions.  Consequently, reformers desired to improve their advanced placement course programs, knowing they could level the playing field by offering equivalent access to an elite product. Yet, the development of the AP Program did not advertise real equality between the academic haves and have-nots. Because once the AP Program achieved critical mass, it lost its performance as a sign of difference. Soon, ratings of institutions (Dartmouth being the latest) improved their guidelines around giving credit for AP training or favoring it in acceptance opinions.  And eventually, top level suburban and private academic institutions started to drop the system, saying it’s obsolete, overly-restrictive, and too focused toward multiple choice assessments.

advanced_placement_coursesConsider now the recent move by the College Board to recover curricular importance and rigor to the AP product.  Taking seriously the charge that advanced placement courses were no longer in line with educating methods in higher education, the College Board has redeveloped the system.  The new program will motivate more work in technology laboratories and less parroting back of treatments, more work on traditional thinking and less recall skills of traditional details. That all appears to be very good.  But it will do little to improve learning and educating, especially at academic institutions with low-levels of educational and management potential.

To be clear, these are excellent improvements and programs like advanced placement courses should continue to be enhanced and improved.  But they will not take care of the further issues that impact academic quality and opportunity in the United States.