Dear Parents and Students,

Please remember that the AP College Board will be providing AP scores on-line during the second week of July.  The link below provides information that will allow students to have early access to their scores as well as the steps needed to acquire them.  Please contact Mr. Meyers if you have any questions.


http://www.collegeboard.org/ap-scores.html?ep_ch=PR&ep_mid=10746204&ep_rid=150041285

Dear Parents and Students,

To stay strongly aligned with college credit policies and to prepare AP students for college and subsequent careers, the AP Program has recently redesigned several courses in history, world languages, and science. This week we will take a look at the upcoming changes being put in place for AP United States History.

Revisions at a Glance

• A new curriculum framework clarifies the knowledge and skills students should demonstrate to qualify for college credit and placement.
  In the past, the AP Program simply specified the weighting of various periods that the AP course should cover. Although this approach was intended to provide flexibility, the lack of specificity put pressure on many teachers, who were uncertain about AP Exam content, to attempt to cover every detail of American history. As a result, many felt unable to dedicate sufficient class time to helping students apply content knowledge to the practice of historical analysis, interpretation, and writing.
• The new AP U.S. History Curriculum Framework, developed in close consultation with college and university faculty and master AP teachers nationwide, contains a series of learning objectives that clearly describe the knowledge and skills students should demonstrate to succeed on the AP Exam and to qualify for college credit and placement. Timing tests have shown that educators can teach these learning objectives effectively in 140 class periods, so teachers gain the much-needed time to help students develop and apply rich content knowledge and essential thinking skills.
  College U.S. history survey courses have increased emphasis on early and recent American history and decreased emphasis in other areas. This rebalanced focus is reflected in the content weighting of the new AP U.S. History program, reducing the time spent on the 19th century to increase the focus on early and recent American history.
• AP teachers have the flexibility college professors enjoy, to emphasize specific historical examples, and de-emphasize others.
  AP teachers have frequently felt pressure to cover a large amount of content, uncertain of which historical facts, figures, and events would appear on the AP U.S. History Exam. The newly revised exams will relieve pressure and free teachers to engage students more deeply in exploring, understanding, and interpreting major historical events. The new AP Exam offers —
  • Clarity: Each exam questions is derived from the course’s stated learning objectives
  • Flexibility: Teachers choose specific topics to explore in greater or lesser depth. Exam questions are written in a way that allows students to focus their responses on the historical examples taught in class.
• Historical thinking skills are emphasized.
  Each new AP U.S. History learning objective now focuses on content and skills, promoting the historical thinking skills (chronological reasoning, comparing and contextualizing, crafting historical arguments using historical evidence, and interpreting and synthesizing historical narrative) valued by colleges and universities as central to studying history.
• College history faculty members and department chairs have approved and lauded the redesigned course. Each element of the redesigned course and exam was reviewed by college department chairs and faculty members across the United States. They identified the key concepts that history students must learn, and confirmed that within those parameters, AP teachers should have the same flexibility as college professors have to select specific historical topics, examples, and primary sources to teach.

Dear Parents and Students,

To stay strongly aligned with college credit policies and to prepare AP students for college and subsequent careers, the AP Program has recently redesigned several courses in history, world languages, and science. Provided below are the course changes for Physics B and Physics C classes, effective in 2014-2015.

AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2

2014–15

Guided by National Research Council and National Science Foundation recommendations, the AP Program spent several years collaborating with master AP teachers and eminent educators from universities and colleges to evaluate and revise the AP Physics B course. This collaboration led to a decision to replace AP Physics B with two new courses, AP Physics 1: Algebra-based and AP Physics 2: Algebra-based. The new courses were endorsed enthusiastically by higher education officials and will benefit all members of the AP community. AP will begin offering the eagerly awaited courses in the 2014–15 academic year, and it will discontinue the AP Physics B program following the 2013–14 academic year.

Revisions at a Glance

§ AP has implemented key recommendations by replacing AP Physics B with two new courses: AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2.
An in-depth study by the National Research Council (NRC) concluded that AP Physics B is a very broad course that “encourages cursory treatment of important topics in physics” rather than cultivating a deeper understanding of key foundational principles. The NRC further concluded that students should study Newtonian mechanics, including rotational dynamics and angular momentum, topics not covered in AP Physics B.

The NRC also emphasized the need for inquiry-based instruction and in-depth exploration of topics. To achieve these important goals, and to provide the much-needed time for teachers to accomplish them, the NRC recommended spreading the course material over two years. After confirming this recommendation through college curriculum studies, higher education validations, reviews of state standards, and AP teacher timing trials, the AP Program is replacing AP Physics B with two separate full-year courses.

The AP Program will begin offering AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 in fall 2014, followed by the exams in May 2015.

§ Students have the time needed to explore and deepen understanding.
Splitting the AP Physics B course into two separate, full-year courses allows students to achieve in-depth understanding; they will have more time for hands-on explorations of physics content and inquiry labs. The full year also allows time for inclusion of physics content specified by state standards.

The New Courses
Each course is designed to be taught over a full academic year.

§ AP Physics 1: Algebra-based is the equivalent to a first-semester college course in algebra-based physics. The course covers Newtonian mechanics (including rotational dynamics and angular momentum); work, energy, and power; mechanical waves and sound. It will also introduce electric circuits.

§ AP Physics 2: Algebra-based is the equivalent to a second-semester college course in algebra-based physics. The course covers fluid mechanics; thermodynamics; electricity and magnetism; optics; atomic and nuclear physics.

§ A new curriculum framework clarifies what knowledge and skills students should demonstrate to qualify for college credit and placement.
The AP Physics 1: Algebra-based and AP Physics 2: Algebra-based Curriculum Framework was developed in close consultation with college and university faculty and master AP teachers nationwide. The new framework differs from the AP Physics B “list of learning objectives” in significant ways. The curriculum framework is now —

§ Organized around seven, foundational big ideas in physics that structure the courses.

§ Focused on a series of learning objectives that clarify what knowledge and skills students should demonstrate to qualify for college credit and placement. Each learning objective is a combination of specific physics content and one or more of seven foundational science practices.

§ The science practices are emphasized.
The ability to develop and use physics knowledge by applying it to the practice of scientific inquiry and reasoning is at the heart of the new physics courses and exams. Focusing on these skills enables teachers to use the principles of scientific inquiry to promote a more engaging and rigorous experience for AP Physics students.

§ Inquiry investigations are emphasized.
The amount of instructional time devoted to laboratory investigations has increased from 20 to 25 percent. These investigations now foster student engagement in the practice of science through experimenting, analyzing, making conjectures and arguments, and solving problems in a collaborative setting, where they direct and monitor their progress toward an academic goal.

§ Exam questions are based on the learning objectives described in the curriculum framework.
The new curriculum framework includes measurable learning objectives, each of which combines the science practices with specific content to provide teachers with a clear and detailed description of what knowledge and skills students should demonstrate upon completing the courses.

The New Exams —

      § Reduce the multiple-choice section from 70 to 50-55 questions, giving students more                              time to apply reasoning skills to questions on key concepts.

§ Emphasize the ability to use symbolic and proportional reasoning, and the ability to translate between multiple representations.

§ Reduce the number of free-response questions, allowing time to articulate qualitative and quantitative explanations, reasoning, and justifications of answers.

§ Include an experimental-design question that demonstrates understanding of the science practices.

§ The redesigned courses align with the knowledge and skills valued by college faculty members and department chairs.
Each element of the redesigned courses and exams was reviewed by college department chairs and faculty from across the United States. They identified the key concepts and skills that students should learn, and confirmed that the design of the new AP Physics courses offer students a solid foundation for further science coursework in college.

Dear Parents and Students,

With the AP Exams starting next week,  please be sure that your child/children have an account with the AP College Board in order to access their AP scores this summer.  Please see the information provided below which explains the steps one needs to follow to acquire AP scores this coming July.  Please contact Tom Meyers if you have any questions,

AP Score Access Schedule for Students

The College Board
Advanced Placement(R)

AP(R) Online Scores for Students

Now Available: AP Score Access Schedule for Students

With AP Exams less than a week away, we want to remind you that students will receive their AP scores online this year. Students' online score reports will contain scores for all AP Exams they have taken. Paper score reports will no longer be mailed.

When Your Students Can Access Their Scores

All students will be able to view scores as of 5 a.m. EDT on Monday, July 8. However, to allow for those students who need to send scores to colleges by July 15, there will be early access to view and send scores at scheduled times from July 5 to July 7, based on a student's location. Students will receive an email shortly before early access begins with reminders about how and when to access their scores.

Click the link below to find out the window during which students in your area can gain early access to log in and view their AP scores. Students will have early access to their scores only during the scheduled date and times for their location. Once the window for a particular location has passed, students in that area will be able to log in again on July 8.

View the Early Access Schedule for Students:
http://noreply.collegeboard.org/124ba0a55layfousualzgrkaaaaaaaas4by6qrgutveyaaaaa

Look up your location and share the date and time with your students. (Stay tuned for more information about your own access to scores: We'll email you in late May with the access schedule for educators.)

How to Help Students Prepare to Get Their Scores

As a reminder, students MUST have a College Board account and either their AP number or their student ID number to retrieve scores. Here are some ways you can help ensure students are ready to get their scores:

1. Encourage students to sign up for a free College Board
account at apscore.org as early as possible. If they
already have an account, encourage them to confirm their
account username and password by signing in.
http://noreply.collegeboard.org/1c7ae3e01layfousualzgrkiaaaaaaas4by6qrgutveyaaaaa

2. Encourage students to complete two important fields on
their first 2013 AP answer sheet: their student identifier
(student ID number) and email address.

3. Remind students that they must hold on to their AP number.

4. If any students need to send AP scores (2012 and earlier)
to colleges before the online service is available in July,
they can find information about making phone, mail or fax
requests at Score Reporting Services.
http://noreply.collegeboard.org/139e364bclayfousualzgrkqaaaaaaas4by6qrgutveyaaaaa

We understand that some students may not have access to a computer or the Internet during the summer. Please encourage them to plan ahead by finding a local resource now (e.g., a public library). If your students expect to have severe difficulty finding such a resource, let them know that we will provide information about an alternative score reporting process on apscore.org in the coming weeks.
http://noreply.collegeboard.org/1daf750e8layfousualzgrkyaaaaaaas4by6qrgutveyaaaaa