The College Board Redesigns the AP® Chemistry and AP Spanish Language and Culture Courses

Changes Take Effect in Fall 2013

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As part of its ongoing commitment to ensuring that Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) courses reflect college-level expectations and progress in each discipline, the College Board is pleased to announce revisions to the AP Chemistry and AP Spanish Language and Culture courses and exams. These changes take effect in the 2013-14 academic year and were made with the input of faculty members and scientists from many of the nation's finest colleges, universities and secondary schools.  

"The Advanced Placement Program is the gold standard in American education, offering high school students the rigor of college-level course work," said College Board President Gaston Caperton. "The high standards embodied by the AP Program have the power to successfully prepare students for the challenges of the 21st-century global economy, enabling them to achieve their dreams for the future."

The AP Program evaluates its courses and exams regularly and revises them to deepen the focus on critical thinking skills and to reflect the most recent developments in each discipline. Revised courses in AP French Language and Culture, AP German Language and Culture, and AP World History debuted in classrooms in fall 2011; revisions to AP Biology, AP Latin and AP Spanish Literature and Culture will take effect in the 2012-13 academic year.

"The improvements made to the AP Chemistry and AP Spanish Language and Culture courses and exams are the product of the diverse expertise of faculty from dozens of the nation's finest colleges, universities and secondary schools, who have designed these curricula and assessments to represent the best practices in their disciplines," said Trevor Packer, senior vice president for the Advanced Placement Program and College Readiness.

Advances in AP® Chemistry

Working in collaboration with the National Science Foundation and eminent educators nationwide, the College Board revised AP Chemistry to promote a balance between developing solid content knowledge and applying that knowledge to the practice of chemistry.  

The revised course allows students more time to master the quantitative aspects of chemistry and to test, evaluate and refine explanations and predictions of natural phenomena. In moving away from the lecture-and-demonstration model toward a more hands-on, interactive approach to studying chemistry, the course also enables students to take risks, apply inquiry skills, and direct and monitor their own progress. The new AP Chemistry Curriculum Framework provides clear learning objectives, based on what colleges expect students to know and be able to do by the end of an introductory college-level chemistry course.

"The redesigned course engages students in a broad range of scientific practices, such as experimental design and interpretation, estimation, and drawing connections across topics," said David Yaron, associate professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University. "The goal is to promote and reward instruction that gets students to think more deeply about the material."

AP Chemistry is currently the 11th most popular AP course. More than 122,000 students at nearly 8,000 high schools enrolled in the course during the 2010-11 school year.

Advances in AP Spanish Language and Culture

Revisions to AP Spanish Language and Culture align with the instructional goals reflected in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century. These national standards tie foreign language instruction to the "5 Cs" — Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities — to make learning world languages more authentic and integral to living in an increasingly global community.

The course now promotes explicitly the best practices of AP teachers and college professors, who draw on authentic materials and thematic instruction to deepen not only students' understanding of the target language but also of the culture and communities of the Spanish-speaking world.

The course also includes clear learning objectives, which help teachers identify what students should know and be able to do across the three modes of communication: Interpersonal, Interpretive and Presentational.

"The redesign of the AP Spanish Language and Culture course and exam is a major step toward building students' communicative competence in Spanish, with a focus on students demonstrating what they can do with the language rather than what they know about the language," said Marty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

AP Spanish Language and Culture is currently the 10th most popular AP course. Approximately 123,000 students at nearly 7,000 high schools enrolled in the course during the 2010-11 academic year.  

Additional details about changes to AP courses and exams can be found at http://advancesinap.collegeboard.org/. This website also offers educators information on resources and professional development opportunities designed to support teachers in implementing course revisions.

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, advanced placement or both. Taking AP courses also demonstrates to college admission officers that students have sought 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 3,800 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 2010, 1.8 million students representing more than 17,000 schools around the world, both public and nonpublic, took 3.2 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 more than 5,900 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.

SOURCE The College Board