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Strategies for Improving the Advanced Placement
Examination Scores of AP Social Studies
Students*
R. Mason Goss
Canterbury School, Fort Myers, Florida
Whether we like it or not, we live in a highly competitive world.
Although there is no national competency examination in our subject
area, Advanced Placement social studies courses are being used more
and more to improve the credentials of college applicants. Those
of us teaching these courses are under increasing pressure from
parents and school administrators to allow more and more students
to take the AP courses and to improve the AP scores of our students.
The present standards movement has affected all social studies teachers.
As this movement sweeps the country, more and more of us are faced
with the difficult task of either teaching meaningful skills or
teaching to a test. A recent study I conducted has demonstrated
that we can achieve both. The study focused upon improving instruction
in AP social studies courses through providing teacher training
in the use of different teaching methods and strategies. Specifically,
teachers learned the importance of (a) mastery learning, (b) the
use of weekly written assessments, (c) the use of primary documents,
(d) the use of actual AP tests for practice, (e) the use of student-developed
outlines, and (f) vocabulary development. Each of the AP social
studies teachers attended an AP Teacher Institute for their respective
course. While at the AP Teacher Institutes, the teachers received
instruction in the mastery learning strategy of teaching (Guskey,
1997). Specifically, teachers were provided with examples of using
this teach, test, reteach, and retest method of instruction. Teachers
also learned the importance of developing students' skills of interpretation
through the use of primary documents.
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Teaching Methods
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During the 2001-2002 academic year, the AP social studies teachers
at Canterbury School began using several teaching strategies that
assisted in raising student scores on AP social studies examinations.
First, all of the AP social studies teachers used primary documents
in their instruction, generally bimonthly. Interpreting primary
documents provided students with the opportunity to practice their
outlining and writing skills. Secondly, each of the AP social studies
teachers relied heavily on past AP subject tests. All tests given
included questions derived from actual AP examinations. Tests included
multiple-choice questions with five choices, like those on the AP
examinations. They also included interpretive essay questions in
which students were required to interpret the meaning of a political
cartoon, a map, or a chart or graph. Students were limited to fifty
minutes to take these tests, which covered material from two to
four chapters. The idea behind testing students on their mastery
of two to four chapter's worth of content was based on the fact
that the AP examinations cover a full year's worth of content. It
was hoped that this method would allow the students to begin to
be able to comprehend and display their knowledge of large volumes
of material at one time. A third strategy employed was the use of
student-created outlines. Each of the AP social studies teachers
required each student to submit comprehensive outlines of every
chapter studied. The teachers collected these outlines the day of
the chapter tests.
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The AP social studies teachers also
gave vocabulary tests to their students each week. These tests were
both multiple choice and free response in nature. The tests had
from fifteen to thirty questions and were generally completed in
twenty to twenty-five minutes during class. The items on these weekly
tests came from course texts and past AP subject examinations. Students
in the four AP social studies courses had to score a minimum of
eighty percent on the weekly vocabulary tests in order to demonstrate
their mastery. If a student did not attain an eighty percent or
higher grade, that student submitted a one- to three-page paper
in which all the assigned terms were used. This activity helped
the student understand the meaning and context of the terms. After
the paper was submitted, the student had two days to take another
version of the vocabulary test.
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Finally, all AP social studies teachers
required each of their students to submit a written assignment every
week. Students completed both in-class writing assignments and longer,
take-home writing assignments in all four AP social studies classes.
This allowed the three AP social studies teachers to determine the
level of content knowledge of the students. In addition, the weekly
writing assignments provided the teachers with the opportunity to
grade students in the areas of persuasion, organization, accuracy
of information, spelling, grammar, and proper use of key vocabulary
terms. These are the areas in which AP examiners score student essays.
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The AP social studies teachers involved
in this study participated voluntarily. While our school paid the
registration and travel expenses for each teacher to attend a week-long
AP Teacher Institute (approximately forty hours of professional
development), these teachers did not have a reduced teaching load.
Each teacher taught five classes (two to three courses), with at
least one being an AP social studies course. However, they were
relieved of additional school duties such as coaching and acting
as a faculty sponsor for a student club. Each of these AP teachers
averaged an additional hour of work every day as a result of the
reforms they were implementing. Whether the time was used in correcting
essay papers or in planning a lesson, each AP social studies teacher
averaged an additional five hours of work per week. In addition
to being rewarded through the improved AP scores of their students,
these teachers were awarded a financial bonus at the end of the
school year. Most significantly, eighty-eight percent of the students
taking AP social studies examinations during the 2001-2002 school
year earned passing scores of three or more.
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* Portions of this article were drawn from the author's doctoral
dissertation, Methods of Improving Student Scores on Advanced
Placement Social Studies Examinations (2002).
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