Advanced Placement
Program (AP)
Important Dates and Deadlines at Stockdale High School / 2009 2010
"It has finally become evident to educators that the College Board's AP Programฎ provides rigorous curricular
guidelines with a reliable common assessment. The Advanced Placement Program is recognized as setting
a
national standard of excellence with equal access for all."
Peter
Negroni
Vice President, Teaching and Learning
The College Board
The Advanced Placement Programฎ is a cooperative educational endeavor between secondary schools and colleges and universities. Since its inception in 1955, the Program has provided motivated high school students with the opportunity to take college-level courses in a high school setting. Students who participate in the Program not only gain college-level skills, but in many cases they also earn college credit while they are still in high school. AP courses are taught by dedicated and enthusiastic high school teachers who follow course guidelines developed and published by the College Board.
The Program's success is rooted in the collaborative efforts of motivated students, dedicated teachers, and committed schools. By participating in the Program, secondary schools make the commitment to organize and support at least one class that is equivalent to a first-year college course.
There are currently more than 110,000 teachers
leading AP courses in high schools worldwide. AP teachers are some of the worlds
finest. The Program is strengthened by their participation in professional
development workshops and Summer Institutes and in the annual AP Reading where
thousands of AP teachers and college faculty gather at college sites across the
United States to score the AP Exams using rigorous guidelines.
The
Program's Role
The AP Program plays a creative role as well as a facilitative one. As an
intermediary among participating institutions, the
Program does the following:
- Chooses college faculty and AP secondary school
teachers who develop college-level course descriptions and examinations,
and facilitates this development process.
- Administers and scores examinations based on the
learning goals described in the AP Course Descriptions.
- Sends AP Grade Reports to the students, their
schools, and their designated colleges.
- Prepares publications, online materials, and
other resources to supplement and support the Program's activities.
- Provides conferences, consultants, and
curricular materials to help interested schools establish college-level
courses.
- Assists schools and teachers in their efforts to
prepare students through Pre-AP initiatives.
- Conducts research and strives to develop new
services and products that enhance quality education.
- The AP Program offers 37 courses in 22 subject
areas.
- Nearly 60 percent of U.S. high schools
participate in the AP Program. In those schools, 937,951 students took AP
Exams in 2002.
- In 2002, 1,585,516 AP Exams were administered
worldwide.
- More than 60,000 teachers worldwide attended AP
workshops and institutes for professional development last year.
- Over 90 percent of the nation's colleges and
universities have an AP policy granting incoming students credit,
placement, or both, for qualifying AP Exam grades.
The AP Examinations are administered each year in May and represent the culmination of college-level work in a given
discipline in a secondary school setting. Rigorously developed by committees of college and AP high school faculty, the 34
AP Exams in 19 subject areas test students' ability to perform at a college level.
Development committees meet
throughout the year to create new exams, which each contain a free-response section
(either essay or problem solving) and a section of multiple-choice questions. (The only subject that does not follow this
format is AP Studio Art, which is a portfolio assessment.) The modern language exams also have a speaking component,
and the AP Music Theory Exam includes a sight-singing task. The multiple-choice questions are scored by computer, while
the free-response portions are evaluated by a team of skilled college professors and high school teachers who meet
annually to score exams in their subject area. The involvement of college faculty at all levels of exam development and
scoring ensures that the AP Exams truly reflect college-level achievement. Students who perform well can receive course
credit and/or advanced standing at thousands of universities worldwide.
AP Exams are created,
administered, and scored with rigor and attention to statistical standards for
reliability and score
validity. To ensure that AP Exams accurately measure college-level knowledge and performance in each discipline, the
development process includes college curriculum surveys, pre-testing of multiple-choice questions, and college
comparability studies. Further, a set number of multiple-choice questions are reused from year to year, making it possible
for statisticians to compensate for differences in difficulty between exams of different years. Each exam question is
analyzed to ensure that performance on any given question does not greatly vary between set populations, such as males,
females, whites, African Americans, and Latinos. On the rare occasions when such analysis shows that the wording of an
exam question might have contributed to inequitable performance by one set population, the question is omitted from the
scoring. Finally, those reading the exams are carefully monitored to ensure that scoring rubrics are followed and scores
are consistent
from reader to reader.
The scale is based on a point bases. 1 5 which defines the students
qualification at the college level.
5 = extremely well
qualified (A level college work)
4 = well qualified (A
level college work)
3 = qualified (B level
college work)
2 = possibly qualified
1 = no recommendation
Important Dates and Deadlines / 2009 2010 at Stockdale High School
|
2009
Oct.
Dec.
2010
Jan.
Feb.
Apr.
May |
ุ Informed students of AP dates and deadlines
ุ Students contemplating dropping an AP course should contact their counselor this month
ุ All class fund-raising completed and turned in to the Finance Office by Jan 15
ุ Students can commence paying AP fees in the Finance Office beginning Jan. 4
ุ Any student who qualified for a Reduced AP fee waiver must submit proper paperwork by Feb 5
ุ All AP exam payments due no later than Feb 19
Any exam paid for after Feb. 19 will have an additional late fee assessed
Feb 22 Feb 26: $10 late fee per exam Beginning Mar 1 $20 late fee per exam
ุ Stockdale will only be administering exams for classes we currently offer
ุ Beginning April 19, 2010 payment for Regular Date AP Exams will not be accepted. An Alternative Date Exam must be order and will cost $86 + ($50 alternative exam fee) plus any previously incurred late fees
ุ Exams begin on May 3, 2010 |
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AP EXAM FEE for 2010 is $86.00 per exam (if paid by Feb 19). Fees increase weekly if not paid by Feb. 19.
No Refunds given once Exams are ordered
Subsidized funding has been made available for any student on free/reduced lunch. For further information contact Mr. Sanchez
Exams are not ordered for students that have not paid for their exams.
Stockdale High AP EXAM SCHEDULE 2009
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Week One
May 4 Morning US Government
Afternoon French Language
May 5 Morning Spanish Language / Computer Sci. A
Afternoon Statistics
May 6 Morning Calculus AB
Afternoon None
May 7 Morning English Literature
Afternoon None
May 8 Morning U.S. History
Afternoon European History
Week Two
May 11 Morning Biology
Afternoon Physics B
May 12 Morning Environmental Science/Chemistry
Afternoon - None
May 13 Morning English Language
Afternoon None
May 14 Morning None
Afternoon None
May 15 Morning Spanish Literature
Afternoon None