Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry and the National AP Chemistry Examination are both critical to secondary level institutions nationwide. The use of a national embossing stamp to attest to successful completion of an AP Chemistry course and exam to ensure college credit is a novel idea worth consideration. Moreover, the concept could be expanded…

According to this author, a quiet revolution is picking up steam in the nation's private secondary schools, with broad implications for college admissions and for teaching and learning on both sides of the transition from high school to college. About 50 of the nation's leading college-preparatory schools have opted out of the College Board's…

Responds to the comments of P. L. Ackerman (see record EJ751362), D. Y. Dai (see record EJ751364), and M. C. Gridley (see record EJ751365) on E. S. Spelke's original article "Sex differences in intrinsic aptitude for mathematics and science? A critical review" (see record EJ733610). Here, the current authors first consider Ackerman's…

Warns against the declining standards of the Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. history examination and the AP program. Focuses on the problems that occur in maintaining high standards and the practive of teaching to the test in AP courses. Discusses who does grade and who should grade the AP examinations. (CMK)

American science teachers in elementary and middle school face a dilemma as they prepare students for high school physics and advanced placement classes. The dilemma lies in ensuring that these students are equipped with the high-level science content they need to thrive in such classes. Aside from life sciences and chemistry sciences, how are our…

After two years of teaching English, history, and wilderness survival in the Inupiaq Eskimo village of Wales, Alaska, the author moved in Brazil to teach English and Theory of Knowledge in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. His four years of experience at the International School of Curitiba have confirmed his belief that…

Superior high school business students should be given the same opportunity to participate in advanced placement programs as that given to those with more traditional academic interests. (JOW)

The standards movement arrived in the mid-1980s and new curriculum frameworks of instruction were crafted for the reform of science and mathematics curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development for teachers. Today, the clarion warning calls about science and mathematics education, the fading STEM (science, technology,…

As a superintendent of the Bellevue School District, the author discusses the Bellevue School District's curriculum and its ongoing development. The mission of the Bellevue School District is to give every student the kind of education traditionally reserved for America's elite class or, stated another way, to give every student a first-rate,…

Latin America is a popularly accepted world region. A systematic review of geographic interpretations of Latin America reveals that the origin of the term goes back to the mid-nineteenth century and that the region's boundaries have shifted over time. This article argues that four basic principles operate in the formation of world regions such as…

Provides a report of committee activities and meeting minutes. Included is information on the development of the Advanced Placement Program in Economics, the use of foreign students as teaching assistants, the assessment of student learning, and the status of the "Journal of Economic Education." (JDH)

Questions the assumptions upon which grade weighting is founded and explores how different groups will likely be affected by this approach. Concludes that weighted grades work against social justice, largely by penalizing those students who are least likely to take college preparatory courses--that is, poor and minority students. (Contains 16…

The efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's human capital pipeline has become a prime area of focus in the policy arena, spurred on by international data that show the U.S. lagging in high school and college completion. For policymakers, education leaders, and even students and parents, it is becoming increasingly clear that the transition…

Discusses the special needs of gifted and creative students, the need for sensitive teachers, and questioning techniques which can be used in the secondary world history classroom. (RM)

Suggests that most programs have not based their acceptance of advanced placement credit on reasoned endorsement of the views of language, literature, and rhetoric that AP exams present. Criticizes the views implicit in the AP program and shows how they conflict with the goals of one particular college composition program. (RS)