For Massive Open Online Courses to have trustworthy credentials, assessments in these courses must be valid, reliable, and fair. Item Response Theory provides a robust approach to evaluating these properties. However, for this theory to be applicable, certain properties of the assessment items should be met, among them that item difficulties are…

In this study, we used an extreme case approach to examine the facilitators and barriers of cognitive engagement among freshmen in Advanced Placement (AP) or Pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. Twelve ninth-grade AP/IB students participated in semistructured interviews focused on cognitive engagement. After analyzing the data using a…

Taking the example of educational biographies of alumni of an IB World School in the Lisbon region, the article aims to explore the potential of the concept of transnational educational spaces for biographical research. We focus on the biographical stage of transition to higher education as a crucial phase of students' biographies where we can…

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) celebrates its 60th Anniversary in 2022 as an international mobility "passport", offering potential entry to universities around the world. Globally, 3,600 schools in July 2022 offer the IBDP. Within these, there is a sub-grouping of well-established private "elite traditional…

College readiness has been a primary focus of U.S. secondary education for over 40 years. Despite the continued focus on college readiness at the national, state, and local levels, researchers have claimed that educational reforms have resulted in little gains in students' college readiness, warranting continued emphasis and research. To advance…

This memorandum provides information pertinent to the participation and performance of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations for 2023 graduates in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In 2023, 59.3% of MCPS graduates took one or more AP exams; 17.3 percentage points more than graduates in Maryland and 24.6…

This report presents Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance results in Texas public schools for the 2022-23 school year. Data are provided by student characteristics, including race/ethnicity; gender; and economic, at-risk, dyslexia, Emergent bilingual student/English learner, foster…

Advanced Placement classes are introductory college courses taught in high school. Over 60% of all secondary gifted programs report utilizing AP classes as part of their program offerings (Callahan et al., 2017). Despite the prevalence of AP courses, there is no exact match between this particular type of programming and the needs of gifted…

This convergent parallel mixed methods study with qualitative and quantitative content analysis was conducted to analyze and describe the cognitive complexity of the publicly released Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles Exam questions compared to the language of higher-order thinking found in research literature. Hess' Cognitive Rigor…

The concept of international mindedness (IM) underscores international baccalaureate (IB) programmes and acts as a universal principle for teaching and learning. Despite its prioritisation, it is unclear how practitioners, parents, and students enact IM in schools individually and collectively. In this article, I present research highlighting the…

The emphasis on testing within the curriculum in high schools in the United States has led to fewer opportunities for students to participate in elective courses. Federal and state testing mandates have contributed to the trend of students taking higher-level courses such as Advanced Placement (AP) and College in the High School (CHS) at the…

In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has experienced unprecedented expansion in the adoption of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. The IB Middle Years Program (MYP) features interdisciplinary curriculum design, concept-based curriculum development, and multiple assessments, which significantly differ from the traditional structures…

Gamification is a teaching strategy often praised for its effectiveness in the classroom. The problem was the lack of information regarding teachers' perceptions regarding gamification in high school Advanced Placement (AP) computer science courses. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of computer science teachers…

Dual Credit, also known as dual enrollment or concurrent enrollment, has been offered at colleges and universities since the 1970s (Kim & Bragg, 2008). Dual credit programs allow students to take college-level courses while still in high school and receive both college and high school credit for successful completion of the courses. While much…

The influence of the International Baccalaureate (IB) has grown impressively on a global scale. In Latin America, the IB has been mainly introduced in private schools that cater for the most affluent sectors of society and, consequently, has been mostly interpreted as contributing to processes of social reproduction and the widening of…