Twenty Years of Advanced Placement Human Geography: A Program Assessment

Abstract

This Focus section of The Professional Geographer contains four articles that were prepared for a program assessment of Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography. Using twenty years of AP program data, the authors probe into the participation of students in the course and how they fared on the exam. AP exam data were analyzed at the national, state, and district-level scales as well as for students differentiated by grade level, race, ethnicity, and gender. The Focus section concludes with a commentary that mulls the private and public values of a geography course in the AP program. This introduction presents the rationale for the program assessment, a summary of the key findings, and a call for geographers to improve the effectiveness of AP Human Geography while supporting research–practice partnerships, dual enrollment programs, and other locally conceived and tailored alternatives to corporate authority, prescriptive curriculum, and standardization in public education. An ongoing assessment of AP Human Geography is recommended as part of a broader discipline-based effort to strengthen and secure the status of geography in U.S. education.