A journalist looks at the qualities of elite public high schools, examining how they promote academic rigor and high achievement and how these variables can be measured. The role of advanced placement programs in setting high standards and motivating students is highlighted. (MSE)

Increasingly, high school students are earning college credits while still in high school, through dual enrollment or advanced placement, which enable some to earn bachelor's degrees in three years or with 12-credit semesters. The trend can reduce student costs, but has sparked debate among professors about whether students are unwisely skipping…

This report describes three exploratory studies of the performance of males and females on the multiple-choice and constructed-response sections of four Advanced Placement Examinations: United States History, Biology, Chemistry, and English Language and Composition. Analyses were carried out for each racial or ethnic group with a sample size of at…

Establishing and refining a framework for performance assessment is especially difficult in large-scale settings that can involve hundreds of judges and thousands of students. This presentation advocates the interactive use of two complementary analytic perspectives and illustrates the approach in the context of the College Entrance Examination…

The International Baccalaureate (IB) program, in which students in the last 2 years of high school can earn a diploma recognized for university admission throughout the world and for course credit at colleges and universities in Canada and the United States, is described. Information about the program is provided in the following areas: (1)…

The study guide outlining the modern foreign language courses for English speakers in Dade County's secondary schools establishes a uniform sequential program for instruction in French, German, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish. Program expectancies are described for each level and type of course, to serve as a basis for planning appropriate…

Twelve research reports related to mathematics education are abstracted and analyzed. Three of the reports deal with aspects of learning theory, three with topics in mathematics instruction (fractions, problem solving, and application orientation), two with aspects of computer assisted instruction, and one each with advanced placement,…

The accredited schools of pharmacy in the United States are listed, and information is given for each school on: institutional background, curriculum, entrance requirements, selection factors, financial aid availability, advanced placement, application and acceptance timetables, estimated expenses for first-year classes, class demography (in- and…

This curriculum guide for Latin classes in grades 6 through 12 is intended to assist the teacher in offering the student the linguistic and cultural aspects of the language and to provide a series of techniques, activities, and approaches which will facilitate the learning of the language. Contents include: (1) general objectives, (2) the…

Information on test-takers collected at the time of examinations provides a rich description of AP students, but what are the characteristics of their teachers? The current study provides a glimpse into these characteristics by summarizing the results of the largest survey of AP teachers to date (32,109 responses). The AP Teacher Survey contained…

A 1994 national survey of deans of 91 accredited social work education programs investigated policies and procedures related to granting advanced standing to social work master's degree students who completed social work foundation courses during undergraduate study. Most have policies and procedures related to advanced standing, but they vary…

This article discusses the resistance of many students who have taken Advanced Placement English in high school to college freshman-year English composition requirements. Concepts of adherence and opposition to authority are applied to help understand these students. Recommendations for helping these students develop their thinking and writing are…

This paper, the result of a professional collaboration, addresses two key issues that are certainly challenging and relevant to public and private school teachers today as they begin to integrate technology into their planning and teaching curriculum. The case study examines one teacher's journey in learning and developing appropriate uses of…

The Rutgers Astrophysics Institute is a program in which gifted high school students learn about contemporary science and its methods, and conduct independent authentic research using real-time data. The students use the processes of science to acquire knowledge, and serve as cognitive apprentices to an expert astrophysicist. A variety of…

As the fiftieth anniversary of the Advanced Placement Program[R] (AP[R]) in U.S. schools approaches, it is the right time to issue the first "Advanced Placement Report to the Nation." This report uses a combination of state, national, and AP Program data in new ways to provide each U.S. state with a context for celebrating its successes,…