Reported usage and perceived value of Advanced Placement English Language and Composition curricular requirements by high school and college assessors of the essay portion of the English Language and Composition Advanced Placement exam

A study was conducted to determine the extent to which high school and college/university Advanced Placement English Language and Composition readers value and implement the curricular requirements of Advanced Placement English Language and Composition. The participants were 158 readers of the 2010 Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam who responded to a 50 question survey utilizing a Likert scale.;High school teacher readers tend to value the APELC curricular requirements significantly more than do college/university composition instructor readers. The mean-of-means for high school teacher readers was 3.41, while for college/university readers, the mean-of-means was 3.17. These means suggest that both groups of readers value to at least an important degree the curricular requirements. However, high school readers valued twelve of the 23 requirements to a significantly higher level than did college/university readers.;The results of this study also indicate that high school teacher readers and college/university instructors on average often implement the APELC curricular requirements during their courses. Whether the high school teacher reader implements them more or the college/university composition implements them more depends on the specific curricular requirement being examined. High school readers significantly implemented five of the 23 curricular requirements more than did the college/university readers. Conversely, college/university readers significantly implemented seven curricular requirements more than did the high school readers. High school teacher readers are significantly more likely to implement informal contexts and imitation curricular requirements and writing assignments based on reading while college/university composition instructor readers are significantly more likely to implement writing stages and teacher and peer review, research skills, editorial style, and some of the feedback curricular requirements.;Finally, the results of this study indicate that readers whose classes are two semesters in length significantly value the curricular requirements more so than do readers whose classes are only one semester in length. Readers whose classes are one semester in length significantly implement the curriculum requirements to a higher degree than do readers whose classes are two semesters.