The 1999 Advanced Placement[R] (AP[R] Psychology Examination contains items drawn from 13 factors related to the study of psychology. This factor structure had not been explored previously. This study focuses on evaluating the fit of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models to examination items. Since examination items were dichotomous and…

Standard methods of teaching an introductory course in computer science, designed to introduce computer programming as a tool for mathematicians and engineers at the university level, are unnecessarily complicated and difficult. They lack a common thread that unifies each unit of material and frequently make use of mathematical notation, technical…

The emergence of accelerated learning as a strategy to simultaneously motivate and challenge secondary students offers a prime example of reform driven by the need to better align schools and colleges with economic and social realities. Accelerated learning is a cluster of programs, such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate,…

One indication that the lines between high schools and colleges are blurring is the growth in programs that permit students to earn college credit while still in high school. More than 250 educators and policymakers representing both the K-12 and higher education communities gathered on June 8-9, 2006 to discuss such "accelerated-learning…

In this article, the author relates how his school beats up the post-national examination blues by staging a "May Madness" competition. The competition is like a "tournament of historical figures" wherein students are asked to debate which historical figures were more significant until they have a "Final Four" and, eventually, a winner. The author…

Ten years have passed since the original proposal was written to establish Advanced Placement Studio Art and History of Art as one of the 13 College Board AP disciplines. This review includes examples of AP high school students' work. (Author/LBH)

States increasingly are offering high school students the opportunity to take postsecondary courses for reasons that range from academic to economic. Some states allow students to earn postsecondary credit for postsecondary classes while others do not. In some states, school districts pay the costs of such courses or the tuition is paid from a…

Discusses early admissions programs to college work and the guidelines of the admissions process. (Author/RK)

Selected high school graduates can earn a year's college credit through College-Level Examination Program. (Editor)

The extent to which log-linear smoothing could improve the accuracy of common-item equating by the chained equipercentile method in small samples of examinees was investigated with responses from a 100-item test and 93,283 examinees. Smoothing reduced the sample size required for a given degree of accuracy. (SLD)

Gender-related differences in participation in and scores on the College Board's Advanced Placement and Achievement examinations were studied for the years 1982 through 1992. There was little change in patterns of examination participation, and patterns of sex differences in scores were generally stable, with some evidence of difference narrowing.…

In this article, the author discusses the trends of advanced placement classes in American high schools. At Sharpstown High School, advanced placement classes have long been reserved for the academically well-to-do. Other students, a majority of them poor and members of racial or ethnic minorities, never considered the rigorous, college-level…

The current study compared the school and psychological functioning of 122 gifted and high-achieving students to that of 176 general education students educated in the same school. Relative to their peers in general education, gifted and high-achieving students served in the school's International Baccalaureate (IB) program reported more positive…

As individuals celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Advanced Placement Program[R] (AP[R]) in U.S. schools, they should honor the educators who are enabling a wider and more diverse group of U.S. students than ever before to succeed in college-level studies in high school. Yet they must also gaze clear-eyed at the inequities that remain and…

If a student writes two essays, the score reliability can be estimated from the correlation between essays. However, if the essays are in different modes or require different skills, the reliability may be underestimated from the correlation. In Advanced Placement history examinations, students wrote one standard essay and one essay that required…