Study On The Advanced Placement (AP) Program

Nowadays,in the world,competition in the economy,science and technology between countries,in the final analysis is the competition of education and talents.national innovation ability is the key to a country’s status in the world.Thus,in order to produce high-quality talents that adapt to the trend of the world and meet the requirements of the era,we should spare no efforts to promote the development of the education. And many countries are carrying out the educational reforms that suit their national reality.The United States,as the world’s superpower,has never slowed down the pace of the pursuit of high quality education.The Adavanced Placement Program(AP) is a globally academic program that high school students could study courses of college-level.The purpose of this study was to clarify the development process of AP,the implementation of AP and its effect on nation,school and students from which I analysed the reasons of its success as well as the exisiting problems.As a result,it could provide reference for offering Chinese Advanced Placement courses.The major research methods were literature analysis,comparative research,etc.This dissertation is divided into five sections.The first part is the introduction.It consists of both domestic and overseas backgrounds,the purpose and significance of the study, overseas and domestic research status,core concept,and research thoughts and methods.The second part is a brief history of AP.This part not only illustrates the social background,educational background and value pursuit of its origin but also clarify the four periods of AP,that is,preliminary period,declined period,resurgent period and flourishing period.The third part is the content of AP and the ways of its implementation.Firstly,it introduces the principle of AP,that is, excellence and equity;and the collaboration community of which consists the College Board,professors,teachers,students and so on.Then,it introduces the course offering with features,the common characters of the courses’ goals,the audit of AP courses,the classroom teaching,the examination evaluation and teachers’professional development.The fourth part is the success as well as the exisiting problems of AP.The success of AP is illuminated through three levels,while the reasons of its success fall into four categories. And finally the chanlleges that AP encountered are demonstrated from two aspects.The fifth part is the enlightenment we could gain from AP to offer Chinese Advanced Placement courses.First,it introduces the current situation of offering Advanced Placement courses in our country and its confusion,such as the operational institution,students admission and faculty.Then,it offers some proposals.To begin with, we should improve the operating institution.Then we should offer diverse couses in order to promote the development of students’ individuality; To balance the breadth and depth of courses,while stengthening the syntaxis of different levels;To formulate scientific course content.In addition,to promote teachers’ professional development so as to promote their lifelong development,thus,cultivating students that meet the requirements of the information-based society.The last but not least,to form multivariable evaluation methods.we should realize the aim of the courses and combine the formative assessment and summative assessment.During more than 60 years of development of AP,It keeps pace with the times from adjusting the curriculum to developing students’ various aspects abilities,and obtains remarkable achievement.Although it has defects,we could absorb the essence and discard the dross to make Chinese Advance Placement Program better.