This memorandum provides information on Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course enrollment, exam participation, and exam performance during the 2023-2024 school year. During the 2023-2024 school year, 136 AP or IB courses were offered across high schools. Among the 25 comprehensive high schools, all offered AP courses,…

Advanced Placement classes are introductory college courses taught in high school. Over 60% of all secondary gifted programs report utilizing AP classes as part of their program offerings (Callahan et al., 2017). Despite the prevalence of AP courses, there is no exact match between this particular type of programming and the needs of gifted…

In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has experienced unprecedented expansion in the adoption of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. The IB Middle Years Program (MYP) features interdisciplinary curriculum design, concept-based curriculum development, and multiple assessments, which significantly differ from the traditional structures…

Gamification is a teaching strategy often praised for its effectiveness in the classroom. The problem was the lack of information regarding teachers' perceptions regarding gamification in high school Advanced Placement (AP) computer science courses. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of computer science teachers…

Dual Credit, also known as dual enrollment or concurrent enrollment, has been offered at colleges and universities since the 1970s (Kim & Bragg, 2008). Dual credit programs allow students to take college-level courses while still in high school and receive both college and high school credit for successful completion of the courses. While much…

This paper reports on the perspectives and operational practices of teachers implementing interdisciplinary units in five International Baccalaureate schools in Norway and Denmark with fewer than 100 students in their Middle Years Programme. The results help explain why interdisciplinary practice in secondary schools is relatively rare. The…

Productive struggle is an effective mathematics teaching practice that provides students opportunities to grapple with challenging mathematical concepts, connect prior knowledge, discover new ideas, and develop their critical thinking skills. Research has documented the benefits of secondary mathematics students engaging in productive struggle.…

M-DCPS had 21,354 graduates in the 2022-2023 academic year. Ninety two percent of students achieved a standard diploma (24 credits). Some students opted for an international curriculum pathway, with 846 (4%) attaining an Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) diploma, and 436 (2%) obtaining an International Baccalaureate (IB)…

Feedback (FB) literacy refers to both student capacity to find, create, interpret, and implement FB as well as teacher capacity to use FB to guide their instructional decisions, plan FB opportunities within formative learning cycles, and offer appropriate types and levels of FB that satisfy diverse learning needs. The problem that was investigated…

"Shakespeare Fixes: Equitable Approaches to Shakespeare Pedagogy in U.S. High Schools" examines the world of Shakespeare professional development and pedagogy for high school teachers. Shakespeare's works occupy a unique place in U.S. schooling, where, due to both the entrenched status of his works in U.S. curricula and the challenging…

The Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) exam consists of two sections: sixty multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and three free-response questions (FRQs); both sections have equal percentages in the exam weighting (College Board 2020). Because the main motivation of the students taking this course is to earn college credit by scoring a three or…

International Mindedness (IM) has become an underpinning philosophy of the International Baccalaureate and schools which adopt its programmes. However, the concept of IM is relevant to any school that offers international education given its potential and importance to drive the school's mindset and mission. The international school market has…

M-DCPS had 20,833 graduates in the 2021-2022 academic year as of June 2022. Most students, 89%, achieved a standard diploma (24 credits). Some students chose an alternative curriculum where 857 (4%) achieved an Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) diploma and 454 (2%) achieved an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma. An…

While choices of musical repertory are key to challenging the historical ethnocentrism of school music curricula, ethnocentrism manifests as powerfully in the way a curriculum defines and structures musical knowledge. This article examines the knowledge divisions used to structure one of the most popular and reputable high school music curricula…

Critical thinking is an essential skill for life-long learning, and, given its increasing importance as a graduate attribute, it is vital to evaluate how educational systems can best improve students' critical thinking through their curricula and classroom practices. This study evaluates the differences in the critical thinking skills of students…