Advanced Placement Program in Biology

Abstract

The Advanced Placement Program, which may be classified as both acceleration and enrichment, was initiated in 1952 as the School and College Study of Admission with Advanced Standing. This study was based on the conviction that: 1. students of high ability can and should undertake more intensive and difficult work than they are at present required to take in the later years of high school, and that 2. at least a significant number of secondary schools is likely to be able and willing to make curricular revisions providing enriched courses for such students. In the Fall of 1953, seven pilot secondary schools, The Bronx High School of Science among them, introduced the Program by establishing college-level courses in certain major subject matter areas for selected groups of very able students. Since this modest beginning, there has been a continuous increase in the number of schools and students participating in the Program. By 1958, 356 secondary schools were offering collegelevel courses to 3,800 students who entered 300 different colleges in the Fall of that year. Secondary schools all over the country have evidenced so much interest in the Advanced Placement Program that a description of the experiences with the college-level courses in biology seems in order. These experiences, it is hoped, may be of help to schools interested in setting up similar courses. At the Bronx High School of Science, the Advanced Placement Course in biology is open to about twenty students selected from the senior class. The course meets for seven periods a week; two double laboratory periods and three single recitation periods. Three additional periods are set aside for student conferences, supplementary laboratory or recitation work, special lectures, seminars, and examinations. Students are selected for the course from a list of eligible aspirants provided by the Guidance and Program Committee of the school. The teacher interviews all the candidates and makes the final selection on the basis of the following criteria: 1. intellectual and emotional maturity 2. demonstrated superior scholastic ability 3. genuine interest in biology and 4. recommendation of the former teachers and guidance counselor of the individual student.