AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program

AP draws together the most recent and rigorous research on the strengths and weaknesses of the Advanced Placement program.

With an annual yearly growth rate of 9.3 percent over the last two decades, Advanced Placement courses have become a juggernaut in American high school education. AP courses are routinely perceived as an indicator of educational rigor, and many schools push to enroll low-income or minority students in these courses in the hope of preparing them for success in college-level courses.

This rapid expansion of AP courses raises important questions. What are the advantages and disadvantages of courses geared toward the AP exams? How well do AP courses prepare students for college-level work or predict students’ success in college? Should colleges award credit for AP courses? Is the AP program a cost-effective tool for closing the gap between students in privileged and struggling communities?

This book examines closely the differences between AP and other high school courses, as well as variations among AP courses. In-depth studies gauge the impact of AP coursework on student performance in college. Finally, researchers examine the use of AP information in college admissions.

Taken together, these studies present a comprehensive picture of the history, impact, and future of the Advanced Placement program.

Kristin Klopfenstein earned her PhD in economics from the University of Colorado and is currently a senior researcher at the University of Texas at Dallas Texas Schools Project while on leave from a faculty position at Texas Christian University. She uses Texas’ extensive student-level administrative database to study factors influencing the preparation of traditionally underrepresented students for postsecondary education and the workforce. Her most-cited research examines the access to and impact of the AP Program for low-income, rural, black, and Hispanic students in Texas. Klopfenstein’s work has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Communities Foundation of Texas, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education.

Philip M. Sadler earned a BS in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973 and taught middle school science and mathematics for several years before earning a doctorate in education from Harvard University in 1992. As the F. W. Wright Senior Lecturer in Astronomy, Sadler teaches graduate courses in science education and undergraduate science at Harvard University. As head of the science education department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, he carried out work that informs national policy debates on the teaching of science and professional development of teachers. Sadler has won awards for his research from the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the American Institute of Physics. His research interests include assessment of students’ scientific misconceptions and how they change as a result of instruction, the development of computer technologies that allow young people to engage in research, and models for enhancement of the skills of experienced teachers. He was the executive producer of A Private Universe, an award-winning video on student conceptions of science, and is the inventor of the Starlab Portable Planetarium and many other devices used for the teaching of astronomy worldwide. The materials and curricula that he has developed are used by an estimated fifteen million students every year.

Gerhard Sonnert is a research associate at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and associate of the department of physics at Harvard University. After receiving a doctorate in sociology from the University of Erlangen (Germany) and an MA in public administration from Harvard University, he entered the Harvard physics department in 1988 and conducted Project Access, a major empirical study of women’s careers in the sciences. In 2006 he joined the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where he has investigated the effects of high school experiences on beginning college students’ intentions for a career in the sciences and has also studied the factors influencing students’ success in college calculus courses. Among his books are Who Succeeds in Science? The Gender Dimension (1995, with the assistance of Gerald Holton), Gender Differences in Science Careers: The Project Access Study (1995, with the assistance of Gerald Holton), Einstein and Culture (2005), and What Happened to the Children Who Fled Nazi Persecution (2006, with Gerald Holton).

Robert H. Tai is an associate professor of education at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. He earned a BS in physics and a BA in mathematics from the University of Florida, an MS in physics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and an EdM and an EdD from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research agenda, which focuses on science education and scientific workforce issues, spans the range from grade six to postgraduate study and has been published in a variety of journals, including Science. He was a member of the 1995−1997 editorial board of the Harvard Educational Review and was the recipient of the 2008 Award of Leadership in Educational Research from the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. Prior to entering academia, Tai was a high school physics teacher for three years in Illinois and Texas.