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CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. College Board has announced some changes to its advanced placement (AP) chemistry and Spanish courses, offered at most area high schools. Croton-Harmon High School Principal, Al Capasso, said that the changes will likely be minor to moderate, and wont come down the tubes for years.
I think a bigger change is for kids next year is the AP bio test because one of the major criticisms of the AP bio test was that it was too broad a test, Capasso said. The amount of content was far too great to be covered in a school year, and it didnt go into any depth of understanding. One of their changes theyre making in bio is to go into more depth on fewer topics.
The changes aren't scheduled to be implemented until the 2013-2014 school year.
Some of the changes for AP chemistry, as announced by the College Board, the organization that guides the college level courses, are more hands-on projects.
"The redesigned course engages students in a broad range of scientific practices, such as experimental design and interpretation, estimation, and drawing connections across topics," said David Yaron, associate professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, in a College Board press release. "The goal is to promote and reward instruction that gets students to think more deeply about the material."
Changes to AP Spanish are said to be designed to deepen students understanding of the Spanish through authentic material, according to College Board.
"The redesign of the AP Spanish language and culture course and exam is a major step toward building students' communicative competence in Spanish, with a focus on students demonstrating what they can do with the language rather than what they know about the language," said Marty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, in the press release.
I think that really, the teachers will be the key people. Because theyre going to be in communication with the College Board, and theyll be receiving the AP materials, said Capasso.
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