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By Dr. Harry Tennant
Monday, January 31, 2011 In The News: New AP Biology Release Tomorrow; U.S. History Delayed Several of the Advanced Placement courses are being re-written and the "College Board" has set a 90% teacher 'approval rating' as a measure of when they are ready for implementation. The measure is based upon whether surveyed teachers indicated that the test was on "the right path"...indicating significant improvement over the prior test. Biology passed, with 95% of sampled biology teachers indicating an improvement over the prior test. History is not ready for prime-time. Only 70% of history teachers indicated the proposed test would be "a change for the better." Accordingly, its release has been delayed a year. Some key text from the article is quoted below. The much more lengthy and detailed article can be accessed by clicking the web page image of the article. "While the College Board plans to unveil a sweeping revision to Advanced Placement biology courses on Tuesday, it is delaying similar changes in United States history by a year to address concerns from high school teachers. The changes in both subjects are part of a broad revamping of A.P. courses and exams to reduce memorization and to foster analytic thinking. But while the new biology curriculum is specific about what material needs to be covered, some teachers complained that parts of the history course seemed vague, and the board said it needed more time to clarify what should be studied. Board officials said they expected to publish the new United States history curriculum next fall. That curriculum will now take effect in the 2013-14 school year, they said, rather than in 2012-13, when the new biology program is to begin." "...the new biology curriculum (will) be posted Tuesday on the board’s Web site. He said the board planned to make similar changes in its world, European and art history courses, as well as in chemistry and physics." Posted at 1:29 PM Keywords: In The News , AP , Advanced Placement , Biology , U.S. History , Assessments , Standardized Assessments 0 Comments |