A study investigated college admissions committee policies for recognizing and rewarding high school advanced placement and honors coursework. One-quarter award an extra grade point for advanced classes, 45 percent give priority in processing these applicants, and 66 percent give points in ranking applications. Advanced placement coursework is…

After participating in a 3-week individually paced precalculus or science course, 892 academically talented high school students were surveyed. Findings indicated that most students received credit or placement or both for their independent work. Placement/credit was related to Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, gender, type of school, and grade…

Early-entrance programs for academically gifted students aged 10 to 14 are offered at a number of colleges and universities. Admissions officials and experts on gifted children worry that some students are not mature enough, that their social development will suffer, and that they will experience social isolation. Highly selective colleges may be…

The College Board released the profile of 1998 college freshmen who took the Scholastic Assessment Tests and Advanced Placement exams and reported that the number of well-prepared students of all ethnicities is increasing, as is the number of poorly prepared students. The most striking differences found were between suburban schools and schools in…

Describes the new Advanced Placement (AP) world history course, which has a global and thematic focus and emphasizes global interactions and comparative issues. Discusses the chronology used and its emphasis on global forces and developments within civilizations. Believes that world history courses should assist students in understanding how the…

Discusses why world history instruction is flourishing in higher education. Describes the new Advanced Placement (AP) world history course and states that the course is comparable to college-level world history courses. Considers to which college world history course the AP course is most comparable. (CMK)

Describes the six habits of mind fundamental to the study of history. Argues that a world history course must introduce students to the processes by which historians study the past. Provides suggestions for teaching the habits of mind through the proposed Advanced Placement (AP) world history course. (CMK)

Students from 38 colleges with high scores on an advanced placement examination essay and low scores on the multiple-choice portion were compared with students with the opposite pattern. The pattern was not related to college grades, but was related to other test performance. (SLD)

Addresses the possible impact of block scheduling on student performance on the advanced placement (AP) examination. Discusses team-teaching AP history and English courses for both junior and senior levels using alternative schedules (alternating weeks for AP English and history throughout the school year). Provides two AP syllabi for history and…

Reanalyzes classroom discussion data using a social-enactment theoretical orientation and a substantive framework based on gendered classroom interactions, multiple subjectivities, and power relationships. Analyzes actions and interactions of two highly visible 12th graders in during an academic year in an Advanced Placement English class. Finds…

The authors summarize the results of a survey of 1,365 instructors of advanced placement (AP) economics courses; responses were received from 296 instructors (21.7 percent). The authors discuss the respondents' textbook preferences, graduate and undergraduate backgrounds, teaching experiences, and evaluations of nontextbook teaching materials.

In 1956, 1,220 college-bound juniors and seniors in 104 American high schools took the first Advanced Placement (AP) exams conducted by the Educational Testing Service for the College Board. The AP program was unabashedly elitist and designed to fortify the education of the nation's future leaders in anticipation of Cold War national security…

Curriculum surveys are used periodically to validate the use of Advanced Place Program[R] (AP[R]) Exams as assessments of skills required for advanced college-level study. In the case of AP German Language, the target level is third-year college language study. This article presents results from a 2003 curriculum survey completed by third-year…

In 2002, nearly 100,000 high school students took one of the Advanced Placement Program? (AP?)language examinations in French, German, or Spanish. One way in which the validity of these exams is ensured is through periodic college comparability studies. The purpose of such studies is to equate the AP scores with performance standards in the third…

Sternberg's theory of successful intelligence was used to create augmented exams in Advanced Placement Psychology and Statistics. Participants included 1895 high school students from 19 states and 56 schools throughout the U.S. The psychometric results support the validity of creating examinations that assess memory, analytical, creative, and…