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The Internationalization of the Advanced Placement Program
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by Robert DiYanni
The College Board
New York, New York
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This second article in a two-part series on the Advanced Placement Program focuses on the internationalization of AP. It includes information about the expansion of the AP Program abroad, the AP International English Language Examination, and discussion of AP international professional development initiatives.
Introduction
The Advanced Placement Program has often been seen as an American program, one that developed in the United States to meet the needs of students in their final years in American secondary schools. A previous article on the history of the AP Program demonstrated the validity of this belief. But there is more to the story, for as the AP Program developed, it began to be adopted by international schools around the world -- and not only schools with direct ties to the United States, such as Department of Defense schools or schools assisted by the U.S. Department of State (though both offered AP). In addition, the AP Program began to be increasingly recognized by universities outside the U.S.
Initial International Foray
The College Board began to consider the international audience for AP more seriously in the late 1980s, when it hired Charlotte Gill (then Charlotte Rosen) to serve as associate director of International Affairs for the AP Program. Dr. Gill began an initiative to make AP better known and understood around the world. Her primary focus was to gain academic recognition for AP among international universities, with her major success in this area occurring in Germany. Through working with the German cultural ministry and with Dr. Diether Raff of Heidelberg University, Dr. Gill was instrumental in securing the acceptance of AP in all German universities. Before the German ministry developed its AP policy, an American student with a high school diploma from an accredited secondary school who wished to enter a German university had to do additional work -- usually two years of college study before being considered ready for a German university. The German AP policy requires students to have a high school diploma and four AP Exams with grades of 3 or higher. Demonstration of sufficient knowledge of the German language is also necessary, a proficiency that can be demonstrated with a qualifying grade on the AP German Language Examination.
> Dr. Gill's work in the early 1990s continued the expansion of AP beyond U.S. boundaries through offering AP courses and exams at DoDDs schools, at State Department Assisted Overseas Schools, and at schools in Canada. In fact, the expansion of AP into Canada occurred at the same time that AP began expanding outside of North America.
Teacher Professional Development
The College Board worked with the U.S. Department of State, with the Department of Defense, and with various types of international schools to provide opportunities for the professional development of AP teachers through conferences, presentations, weekend workshops, and weeklong AP Summer Institutes. Some of this professional development was done in conjunction with regional educational associations throughout the world -- AASA, AISA, EARCOS, ECIS, MAIS, NESA, and others. The College Board offered sessions annually at the teachers conferences sponsored by these regional educational associations. But the Board also provided professional development workshops and institutes on its own, often offering them at international school sites, such as the International School of Brussels, or in conjunction with an American university that had international outreach, such as New York University's campus in London.
AP International Recognition
Recognition of the AP Program began with a number of European universities accepting AP students, including the universities of Montpellier, Bern, Basel, and Lausanne along with the entire German university system, all granting recognition for AP. These institutions were soon followed by others, including the complete Austrian university system, which signed on to recognize AP with a policy similar to that of the Germans in late 2001.
In 2002, universities in Thailand were moving toward adopting a countrywide AP recognition policy. At the same time, the first four Chinese universities -- all in Beijing -- agreed to accept AP Exam grades for qualified students. As this article went to press, universities in Bolivia, Pakistan, and South Africa were added to the AP Recognition list, bringing the number of countries with universities recognizing the Advanced Placement Program to 24 and climbing.
It is important to distinguish what the recognition of AP means internationally from what it means in the U.S. and in Canada. U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities typically grant advanced placement or credit, or both, to students who present qualifying AP grades (most often 3 or higher on a 1-5 scale) in different academic subjects. Each university sets its own recognition policy, and policies vary not only from one college or university to another, but also across departments at any particular university.
In contrast, universities in other countries often will not consider American and Canadian secondary school diploma holders unless they present at least 3 AP Exam grades (often with 3 and sometimes with 4 as the minimum grade). American high school graduates with a sufficient number of qualifying AP grades are then considered to have met the standard along with other applicants, including those from other international programs and from the host country's secondary schools. Technically, international universities do not grant "advanced placement" for AP (or indeed for any program). However, if one compares the treatment of students submitting qualifying AP Exam grades with those who submit no such credential, then the AP students are advanced to candidacy, in the general sense, in a way they had never been until the advent of AP.
The AP International Diploma
The AP International Diploma (APID) was developed by the College Board in 1995. An important advisor in developing the diploma was Dr. Lewis Grell, former executive director of the Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE). The APID is designed for students whose higher education plans include applying to a university outside the United States. It is accepted by universities worldwide as an indication of a student's readiness for postsecondary work at institutions in various countries. However, it is not a substitute for a secondary school diploma that is issued by accredited American high schools or by secondary schools abroad. The APID is also not typically used for credit or advanced placement at universities outside the United States and Canada. Rather, it is used as one type of entrance credential.
To earn an AP International Diploma, a student must earn grades of 3 or higher on at least four full-year (or the equivalent in half-year) AP Examinations in three or more academic areas: two from Languages, one from either Math or Sciences, and one or more from another area not previously included, such as History, Social Sciences, and Arts.
> For the past few years there has been discussion of introducing a programwide AP Diploma. After a two-year pilot that included 10 school districts, and after considerable discussion and debate within the College Board and among outside advisors, a decision was made not to offer an AP Diploma. Instead, an awards program for schools will be implemented in 2003. The AP International Diploma, however, remains in effect.
The Case of Canada
Analogous to the College Board's effort to expand AP in Europe and Asia in the early 1990s was an initiative to do the same in Canada. And just as Charlotte Gill had been hired by the College Board in 1989 to do international work for AP, so the Board hired George Ewonus as an AP Consultant for Canada to manage the AP Program there. Canada began offering AP in the western provinces, at first primarily in British Columbia. By 1993 Canada offered more than 5,700 exams annually, with 18 major universities recognizing the AP Program. By 1996 these numbers had increased to more than 7,500 exams in all 10 provinces and with nearly 300 secondary schools offering the Program. The Canadian expansion of AP continued unabated, so that by the end of the decade, the Canadian AP Program included 320 schools and more than 8,600 examinations. In May 2002, more than 7,700 students took 11,306 AP Examinations. Like the AP international initiative outside of North America, AP Canada provided professional development in the form of teacher conferences, workshops, and AP Summer Institutes. Recognition of AP has continued to grow so that nearly every important Canadian university now has an AP policy.
Assisting Dr. Ewonus with the AP Program in Canada is assistant director Lindy Ewonus, who has primary responsibility for Pre-AP teacher professional development. A newly hired consultant, Lynda Robinson, a specialist in foreign languages, assists with expanding AP services in Ontario, where the program has grown dramatically in the past few years. Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, the AP Program will be expanding its services to schools throughout Canada and increasing the scope of opportunities for teacher professional development there.
One testimony to the success of AP in Canada is that five AP teachers (of 15 honorees) were given the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2001. Another is the establishment in each Canadian province of an Advanced Placement Advisory Council, which works closely with schools and with the provincial ministries. AP continues to be in the news in Canada as providing additional impetus for educational excellence with its high standards, rich courses, and rigorous examinations.
The Story of APIEL
APIEL, the Advanced Placement International English Language Examination, was developed at the request of European educators who wanted a high-level English language proficiency examination for nonnative speakers. European interest in creating such an exam was inspired by their acquaintance with and recognition of the Advanced Placement Program in the early 1990s. The APIEL Examination was created as an alternative to the TOEFL, which was first offered in 1964, and which has been widely used. APIEL required students to demonstrate language performance through writing two academic essays and through speaking on five different topics.
> The APIEL Examination was developed by a committee of international educators from 10 countries. Some were active teachers at secondary schools abroad. Others were university professionals with expertise in English, ESL, and rhetoric and composition. The APIEL Exam's free-response writing and speaking questions were evaluated by a similar but larger group of international experts.
> First offered in 1997 in Germany and France, APIEL quickly spread to other countries, with nearly 30,000 students taking exams in more than 30 countries through May 2002. The APIEL Examination was accepted by nearly 350 U.S. colleges and universities, including the Ivy League institutions Brown, Columbia, Penn, and Yale. APIEL was also accepted by small private colleges such as Amherst and Williams and by large state universities, including the University of Texas at Austin and the entire University of California system. In addition, nearly 400 universities abroad recognized APIEL exam grades. A number of British universities also accepted APIEL Exam grades along with universities in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and many countries throughout Europe. As with AP recognition, the entire university systems in both Austria and Germany accepted APIEL grades for their programs in English.
> In the spring of 2002, the College Board decided, for financial and strategic reasons, to discontinue offering the examination. APIEL Exam items were purchased by the Educational Testing Service, most likely for use on other ETS exams, including the new TOEFL, which debuts in 2004.
The International Team and New Initiatives
The College Board International Services unit has a dual purpose: to provide service for AP Program participants abroad and to introduce the AP Program to teachers, administrators, and students not currently participating in it. In addition to George and Lindy Ewonus, the AP director and assistant director, respectively, for Canada, the international team includes Robert DiYanni, director of AP International Services; Theresa Chang-whei Jen, associate director; and Bernie Longboy, assistant director. This group works closely with Theresa Carroll Schweser, director of the International Education office in Washington, D.C., and Janine Farhat, associate director.
In addition, the College Board is bringing the AP Program, including Pre-AP initiatives, to schools in China, Taiwan, and India, including those outside the international schools arena. Meetings have been held both in the U.S. and in these Asian countries with schools and universities, with private agencies, and with educational ministries regarding the inauguration of cooperative educational initiatives that include the AP Program, Pre-AP professional development, and the new grades 6-11 College Board English and mathematics initiatives, which include pedagogical frameworks and instructional modules and materials, along with embedded diagnostic assessments.
Conclusion
What was once an American program, Advanced Placement has now become truly international. With AP Exams now offered in 100 countries from Austria to Zimbabwe, and with AP initiatives under way in every region of the world, the Program has indeed gone global. One additional facet of the internalization of AP is a number of recent cooperative initiatives the College Board has undertaken with the International Baccalaureate Organization. In the fall of 2002, the two organizations conducted a joint session at the College Board National Forum in Atlanta and another at the ECIS fall 2002 Teachers Conference in Berlin. At both meetings, the new jointly sponsored and produced AP/IB (IB/AP) brochure debuted. And finally, a small working group with members of the two organizations has been set up to consider how to bring the benefits of both programs to international teachers.
Robert DiYanni is director of AP International Services at the College Board and adjunct professor at New York University. Before joining the Board in 1999, Dr. DiYanni taught English and humanities at City University of New York, Pace, NYU, and Harvard. He has published numerous articles and more than two dozen books on writing, literature, and humanities, mostly for university students. He is also a frequent lecturer and international workshop presenter, having been a regular presence at ECIS conferences since the mid-1990s.
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