AP Course and Exam Redesign

AP Higher Education Website

www.collegeboard.org/aphighered

ArtsArt HistoryMusic TheoryStudio Art: Drawing PortfolioStudio Art: 2-D Design PortfolioStudio Art: 3-D Design Portfolio

EnglishEnglish Language & CompositionEnglish Literature & Composition

History & Social ScienceComparative Government & PoliticsEuropean HistoryHuman GeographyMacroeconomicsMicroeconomicsPsychologyUS Government & PoliticsUS HistoryWorld History

Mathematics & Computer ScienceCalculus ABCalculus BCComputer Science AStatistics

Natural SciencesBiologyChemistryEnvironmental SciencePhysics BPhysics C: Electricity & MagnetismPhysics C: Mechanics

World LanguagesChinese Language & CultureFrench Language & CultureGerman Language & CultureItalian Language & CultureJapanese Language & CultureLatinSpanish Language & CultureSpanish Literature

Most popular AP exams in AZ

• Which exams are most frequently presented for credit?

English Language & Composition

English Literature & CompUS HistoryUnited States Government &PoliticsCalculus AB

• Begins with courses and exams in world language, history, and science subjects

• Represents a collaboration among college faculty, AP teachers, and learning and assessment specialists

• Is designed to meet colleges’ expectations of student outcomes for the comparable college course

Advances in APRedesigning High Stakes Assessments to Measure 21st Century Knowledge and Skill

What’s Changing in Each Subject?

Key Components of the Revised AP

Courses and Exams

• Curricula that strike a balance between breadth of content coverage and depth of understanding

• Greater emphasis on critical thinking, inquiry, reasoning, and communication

• Standards informed by: Recommendations of researchers and national

disciplinary organizations

Results of curriculum studies conducted at four-year institutions

Leading pedagogical and measurement practices

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/

AP Course Launch Schedule

Fall 2011• French

Language & Culture

• German Language & Culture

Fall 2012• Biology• Latin• Spanish

Literature & Culture

Fall 2013• Chemistr

y• Spanish

Language and Culture

Fall 2014• Physics

1: Algebra-Based

• Physics 2: Algebra-Based

• United States History

Fall 2015Tentative• Art

History• Europea

n History• Calculus

(update)

World Language Curriculum Revisions: Goals• Align with 21st century practices focused on the three

modes of communication: Interpersonal

Interpretive

Presentational

• Provide a thematic approach; integrate language, literature and culture by requiring students to make connections to other disciplines and to compare aspects of multiple cultures.

• Articulate clear learning objectives that describe the college-level knowledge and skills that students need to succeed on AP Exams.

• Include performance level descriptors that provide the basis for interpreting student scores on AP Exams and allow teachers to adjust curriculum and instruction to meet students' needs.

New Courses and Exams Emphasize Real-World Application

AP World Language Before Redesign AP World Language After Redesign

Emphasized learning about the language (memorized)

Students learn to use the language

Focused on isolated language skills Instruction focuses on integrating skills in the modes of communication

The textbook was the curriculum Teachers use thematic units and authentic materials

Students learned cultural facts in isolation

Students explore relationships between cultural practices, products, and perspectives

Students respond to artificial situations from the textbook

Students are given personalized, real-world tasks

Assessment was about finding out what students know

Assessment is to find out what students can do with their language skills

Historical Thinking Skills

ChronologicalReasoning

Crafting Historical

Arguments from Historical Evidence

Comparison and Contextualization

Historical Interpretation and

Synthesis

Historical argumentation Appropriate use of relevant historical

evidence

Historical causation Patterns of continuity and change over time Periodization

Comparison Contextualization

Interpretation Synthesis

Redesigned history courses focus on four key historical thinking skills central to 21st century history studies.

Science Curriculum Revisions: Goals

• Promote deep conceptual understanding by reducing breadth of coverage, allowing students to develop scientific inquiry and reasoning skills.

• Designed around 7 Science Practices-extending thinking and investigation across concepts and domains

• Focus on emerging areas of research that capture essential concepts within the discipline and engage students.

• Develop exam questions that measure the integration and application of knowledge and skills, rather than memorization.

• Emphasize inquiry-based labs, aligned with the recommendations in America’s Lab Report.

Developed in response to recommendations made by the National Research Council and the National Science Foundation

What’s Changing for Physics B in 2014?

Why Are We Redesigning Physics B?

Recommendations for AP science courses:

• Help students develop a deep understanding of concepts, principles, and science practices, rather than focus on exhaustive coverage.

• Engage students in inquiry by providing opportunities to experiment and analyze information critically.

AP Physics B recommendations:

• Replace current Physics B with a two-year sequence of study.

• Focus primarily on Newtonian mechanics (including rotational dynamics) in a one-year course.

Recommendations of a 2002 National Research Council/ National Science Foundation Report:

Current Course

Redesigned CoursesCurrent course includes a wide

breadth of topics to be covered in a single year.

New courses decrease breadth of content each year to allow time to promote conceptual reasoning and understanding.

• kinematics;

• Newton’s laws of motion;

• torque;

• gravitation and circular motion; work, energy, and power;

• linear momentum;

• oscillations,

• mechanical waves and sound;

• fluid statics and dynamics;

• thermodynamics with kinetic theory, PV diagrams;

• electrostatics;

• electrical circuits;

• magnetic fields;

• electromagnetism;

• physical and geometric optics;

• topics in modern physics

AP Physics 1:

• kinematics

• Newton’s laws of motion;

• torque;

• rotational motion and angular momentum;

• gravitation and circular motion;

• work, energy, and power;

• linear momentum;

• oscillations, mechanical waves and sound;

• introduction to electric circuits

AP Physics 2:

• fluid statics and dynamics;

• thermodynamics with kinetic theory, PV diagrams and probability;

• electrostatics;

• electrical circuits;

• magnetic fields;

• electromagnetism;

• physical and geometric optics;

• topics in modern physics

Current Exam Redesigned ExamEmphasis is often placed on

questions that require only mathematical routines used for solution.

Students will continue to solve problems mathematically but the use of proportional and symbolic reasoning and ability to translate between multiple representations will be emphasized.

70 Multiple-choice questions | 90 minutes

• Discrete items and items in sets

• 5 answer choices for each question

6-7 Free-response questions | 90 minutes

• 1 laboratory-related item

• Questions of varying length

Physics 1 and 2 Exams | 90 minutes50-55 multiple choice questions

• Discrete items and items in sets

• 4 answer choices for each question

• Multiple-correct items

Physics 1 | 90 minutes5 free-response questions

• 1 experimental design question

• 1 qualitative/quantitative translation

• 3 short-answer questions

Physics 2 | 90 minutes4 free-response questions:

• 1 experimental design question

• 1 qualitative/quantitative translation

• 2 short-answer questions

Recommending Course Credit-What do AP Exam Scores of 3+ mean?

Curriculum Framework Development

4-year colleges& universities

Academic organizations

Panels of subject-matter

experts

Committeeof college faculty

& AP teachers

50+ college department

chairs

50+AP teachers

Discover Develop ValidateCurriculum studies,

research, and recommendations are

collected

A curriculum framework is drafted

The curriculum framework is reviewed and verified

Exam Development

Standard setting

College comparability

Exam questions are reviewed against achievement expectations to set raw scores for the overall exam.

Portions of an AP Exam are administered to students in the related college course; student AP scores are correlated to their final course grades.

A panel of 15 college faculty & AP teachers

College faculty from the panel

and their students

Define Align

Committees of teachers & college faculty who teach

comparable college/AP courses

Achievement expectations are defined by the specific knowledge and skills required to earn each exam score.

Two studies are conducted to establish standards and inform cut scores for the relevant AP Exam.

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Sample of colleges participating in comparability studies

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• Defining performance: College faculty teaching the comparable course develop descriptions of the performance required to earn each score.

• Standard-settings: A panel of college faculty and AP teachers review course descriptions and determines the number of questions on the exam that students need to answer correctly to earn each score.

• Comparability studies: College faculty at a range of institutions — administer portions of an AP Exam to students in the comparable college course; student AP scores are correlated to their final course grades.

How do we determine exam scores and grade correlates?

Knowledge and skills required to earn scores of 1-5 on an AP Exam are derived from standard settings and college comparability studies.

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No recommend-action

Possibly Qualified

Qualified Well Qualified

Extremely Well

Qualified

Equivalent to grades of B-, C+, and C in the corresponding college course

Equivalent to grades of A-, B+, and B in the corresponding college course

Equivalent to grades of A and A+ in the corresponding college course

• The College Board and the American Council on Education (ACE) recommend granting credit/placement for scores of 3 and higher, which correlate to letter grades of C or better.

• Most colleges recognize transfer credit with grades of C or better.

What do AP scores mean?AP scores are correlated to grades in the corresponding introductory college course.

1 2 3 4 5

AP RESEARCHhttp://aphighered.collegeboard.org/research-reports

AP Fosters Persistence and College Success

AP Students Succeed in Subsequent Courses

AP students exempting from introductory course perform as well, or better than, non-AP students in the sequent course, and earned higher overall GPAs.

AP Students Persist and Complete Degrees

Students with AP Exam scores of 3 and higher were more likely to graduate from college, and to graduate within 4 or 5 years, than non-AP students.

AP Contributes to Students’ Disciplinary Focus

AP students generally took more courses in the discipline and were more likely to major in a closely related discipline.

AP Students Tend to Major in Disciplines Related to the AP Exam

Social Sciences

Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, & Physical Sciences

Humanities & Liberal Arts

Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Computer and Information Science

Biological & Biomedical Sciences

0.0% 5.0% 10.0%15.0%20.0%25.0%30.0%35.0%

Total GroupAP Students

The correlation between AP Exam and major is particularly strong for STEM subjects.

Adapted from Mattern, Shaw, & Ewing, 2011

• Students who earn 3+ on AP Exams tend to earn higher GPAs in subsequent college courses.

Morgan & Klaric: Findings

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Intro Course (Non-AP) AP - 3 AP - 4 AP - 5

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• 147,000 first-year students at 110 four-year institutions • Cross-classified, multilevel modeling approach adjusted for gender,

racial/ethnicity, highest parental education level, SAT scores, and high school GPA

• AP Exam takers scoring a 3+ in the corresponding subject area earned higher GPAs in subsequent courses within that discipline than non-AP Exam takers in seven of the nine subject areas studied.

• Students’ first-year college subject area (SGPAs) examined in nine subject areas: mathematics, computer science, engineering, natural science, social science, history, English, world language, art and music.

• Across all exams, in terms of same-subject-area GPA, AP Exam takers scoring: a 3 outperformed non-AP Exam takers by about 0.11; a 4 outperformed non-AP Exam takers by about 0.16 ; and a 5 outperformed non-AP Exam takers by about 0.25.

Patterson, Packman, & Kobrin: Findings

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• College Board Admitted Class Evaluation Service can provide data analysis to help inform policy. Request a free placement validity study at

www.collegeboard.org/aces. Upload data, indicate credit / placement policies Receive report, summarizing key group differences Consider performing a more tailored analysis with matching

Contact InformationACES Team(609) 683-2255aces@info.collegeboard.org

Using evidence to inform college credit and placement policy

Institutions who establish evidenced based AP credit policies, examine content and curriculum alignment, AP student placement validity to inform AP policy review.

Introducing AP Capstone™

Launching Fall 2014

Introducing - AP Capstone™

Developed with higher education support and a successful pilot supported by 100+ colleges in the U.S.

and Canada

Emphasizes Critical Skills Complements the in-depth subject-matter study in AP

Considering multiple perspectives Careful evaluation of information Writing evidence-based

arguments

Identifying and Solving Problems Oral communication and

defending an argument Collaboration & teamwork

is an innovative program that allows students to engage in rigorous college-level study of the critical

skills necessary for success in college. The Program of study includes a two-course sequence: AP Seminar and

AP Research

AP Capstone Promotes the Skills Identified by Leading Educational Organizations

The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)College Learning for the New Global Century, Essential Learning Outcomes

College Board - Advanced Placement ProgramSkills and Practices identified in AP Courses

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), A Framework for 21st Century Learning

Common Core State Standards Initiative, Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects 6-1

Council of Writing Program Administrators, Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing

Building on the hallmarks of the AP Course & Exam Redesign, AP Capstone emphasizes critical thinking, inquiry, reasoning and

communication

A flexible two-course sequence that teaches students rigorous college-level curricula while promoting the critical inquiry

skills needed for success in college and beyond.

AP Capstone Program Model

Students who earn scores of 3 or higher on the AP Seminar and AP Research Exams and on four additional AP Exams of their choosing will receive the AP Capstone Diploma™.

Students who earn scores of 3 or higher on the AP Seminar and AP Research Exams only will receive the AP Seminar and Research Certificate™

AP Capstone Diploma™

AP Research & Seminar Certificate™

Investigate real-world topics from multiple perspectives

Carefully analyze information, write evidence-based arguments and effectively communicate them

Work independently and with a team to research a topic, develop a written report and deliver a presentation

AP Seminar

Students learn to:

1. Team Project & Presentation• 25%

2. Individual Essay & Presentation• 35%

3. Written Exam• 40%

Exams Scored:

Teachers & Students typically select 2-4 topics for the course.

Example TopicsDemocracyEducationRevolutionFreedomProtest

TechnologySustainability

Design, plan, and conduct a year-long mentored, research-based investigation

Apply research methods and practices to address a real-world topic selected by the student

Write a college-level research paper, present and orally defend the findings and research methodology

AP Research

Students Learn to:1. Research Process

• 15%

2. Academic Thesis Paper (~5,000 words)• 70%

3. Public Presentation and Oral Defense• 15%

Exams Scored:

AP Seminar is a prerequisite to AP Research.

• Distinction – Stand out in the college admission process and have the opportunity to earn valuable college credit or placement

• Critical Skills – Students acquire rigorous college-level analysis, writing, and research skills that that are increasingly valued by colleges.

• Choice – Students choose individual research topics and study topics of relevance and interest.

AP Capstone: The Benefits for Students

What Colleges are saying about AP Capstone

“[Through this program] you get students turned on to higher education in a way they are not currently and they enter university with a different kind of attitude.”

Susan Roth, Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies, Duke University, AP Capstone Curriculum Advisory Committee

“AP Seminar and AP Research are terrific classes that prepare students to think in non-formulaic ways.”

Stuart Schmill, Dean of Admissions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

“At the University of Washington, we would be very interested in enrolling students who have distinguished themselves through the AP Capstone program.”

Phillip Ballinger, Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions, University of Washington

Additional Information about AP Capstone

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AP Capstone online: www.collegeboard.org/apcapstone

Email questions to:apcapstone@collegeboard.org

The AP Capstone Brochure

• Registrars

• Admissions/Recruiters

• Directors of Honors Colleges

• Directors of Undergraduate

Research

• Faculty/credit policy review

• Academic Advisors

• AP Capstone Pilot scores and transcripts arrive with student applications

• AP Seminar and AP Research (1-5) scores are posted to the AP Score transcript along with other AP Exam scores

• Starting Academic year 2014/15-AP Capstone students will present official AP Capstone Seminar and Research courses & Exam scores in College Application process

• Institutions need to review curriculum for credit/placement recommendations

• 14 states/systems with articulated credit policy are currently reviewing for credit recommendations

Practical Considerations……

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Resources available…..

• AP Seminar Curriculum Description

• AP Seminar 2 pager

• AP Research CD coming soon

• AP Research 2 pager

AP Capstone™: Statement of Support

www.collegeboard.org/aphighered

QUESTIONS?

• Pam Kerouac• Higher Ed Policy• pkerouac@collegeboard.

org

• Bard Keeler• AP Capstone Schools• bkeeler@collegeboard.org