AP Syllabi Officially Reviewed to Avoid Bootleg Courses

Angela Januzzi

July 18, 2007

In an effort to ensure college applicants more fairly convey the difficulty of their high school courses, the College Board has announced it will officially review and establish a list of approved Advanced Placement courses.

Available in November, the list will include syllabi reviewed by the College Board that have also been submitted by high schools. If a certain syllabus a high school offers does not meet the “AP” standard that the College Board deems worthy, that course will then be stripped of its claimed Advanced Placement status.

Because lower-income schools with less rigorous syllabi are labeling many non-approved classes with the “AP” title, students in such schools do tend to fail exams in actual accredited AP courses. “By no means do we anticipate that this will result in higher exam scores,” said Trevor Packer, director of the board’s Advanced Placement program. “The audit allows us to know one thing only, and that is, does the AP teacher know what elements are expected in a college-level course. It’s not proof that students are prepared for college-level work.”

Source: Lewin, Tamar. “College Board to Police Use of “Advanced Placement” Label.” www.nytimes.com. Posted: July 18, 2007.