Advanced Placement Audit Process

[This article first appeared in Issue 98 (Spring, 2007) of the PENNSYLVANIA HOMESCHOOLERS® newsletter.]

Many of you have begun hearing about the new College Board Audit process for Advanced Placement courses-- and I know there are lots of questions flying around about this among homeschoolers (as among school folks!). Although at this time the process for homeschooling families has not been finalized, I can shed some light on what is involved, what the purpose of this audit program is, and what it all may mean for homeschooling families. Within a few weeks the homeschool AP Audit process should be complete-- so keep an eye on www.apcentral.collegeboard.com for the latest info.

Is the AP College Board audit out to ‘get’ homeschoolers and stop them from taking part in the Advanced Placement program? Not at all. First, this is an audit program aimed at verifying all uses of the ‘AP’ label on courses-- be that in public, private, distance coursework, or individual homeschools. It is not ‘singling out’ -- or ‘letting slide’-- any particular way of working within the AP program. The College Board AP program is both a program of ‘final exams’, given in May each year, and a program with clear expectations for course content over the school year. The College Board was apparently finding that some schools were using the ‘AP’ label on courses that really in no way reflected the level of scholarship expected. It was as if these schools were ‘stealing’ the trademark name to give their students an edge in college admissions, but not delivering the ‘goods’. Look at it as similar to bluejeans with a counterfeit label-- they may not hold up to many washings, and are cheating the buyer... and the original manufacturer. The College Board is trying to enforce that no one uses the ‘AP’ label on high school transcripts, starting with the 2007-2008 school year, unless the course syllabus has been audited.

But what about my AP courses for this 2006-2007 school year? As just noted, the process is just starting now for next year’s courses. The family that just called to ask me if they could still list the AP Music Theory class their daughter was taking this year with a homeschool friend, led by a local music teacher, is just fine. No courses this year are part of the audit. But for next year, everyone would have to do something-- or not list the course as AP on the transcript. This is not tied at all to taking an AP exam and to ultimately earning college credit-- this is of course still open to anyone-- it’s just a matter of having the right to list a course as ‘AP’ on a transcript. The full listing of which courses nationwide have been successfully audited will be given to colleges this coming fall-- the expectation is that admissions offices may be interested in this when they evaluate students for college acceptance. The College Board is of course hoping that even this school year people will start looking more carefully at their AP courses, to make sure they are meeting expectations.

My kids have been taking AP Online test preparation classes through PA Homeschoolers-- will these courses now be audited? All of the AP Online test preparation classes offered through PA Homeschoolers will go through this audit process-- we will only offer classes next fall that have successfully passed the audit. What does this process involve for our program? All of our teachers are submitting their detailed full-year syllabi to the College Board for review by a college professor or retired AP teacher. The syllabi must meet the overall guidelines set by the College Board-- these guidelines are clearly posted on the audit website at APCentral. If a particular course does not meet all required guidelines, the teacher has two more chances to clarify, add, or correct things (after that they need to ‘try again next year’). Many of us have found that going through this process is actually quite helpful in clarifying for ourselves just what we hope to accomplish in our courses-- much like having to write down clear educational objectives each year of our homeschooling can help each of us focus on the year ahead in a meaningful way. I don’t foresee any audit problems at all for our AP online class program, and we feel strongly that going through the audit will give even more credibility to our classes.

Wait-- is the College Board going to require that only certified teachers can lead an AP course? Where does this leave our co-op-- or me as an individual parent helping one of my own kids? It is especially important for homeschool parents to know that there is no requirement at all for any specific credentials for the individual teacher offering an AP course-- all that is looked at is the detailed syllabus created for the course. When the College Board first began discussing this process several years ago, they had initially proposed gathering info on certification of teachers, attendance at College Board workshops, etc. However, after hearing immediately from many schools (I imagine especially private schools, who do not require certification), this aspect of the audit process was totally dropped. If this is so for teachers in public, private, and distance programs, then it will also be true for homeschooling parents offering a course to their own children or to a co-op group. Of course, the College Board has strong opinions on what makes for an excellent teacher (and a 14-page paper available online on ‘AP Teacher Standards’)-- but this is not part of the audit process. Homeschool parents should know that they are indeed welcome to take part in all College Board AP teacher workshops-- and many of these are now going to an online format to make them even more available to a wider range of people. There is a fee for these workshops, and many of our AP online teachers have had the chance to take part.

How am I supposed to know what to do-- are there any resources available to help homeschoolers meet the College Board audit guidelines? You definitely won’t have to feel like you are groping in the dark if you take part in the Audit. There are extensive resources right up on the College Board www.apcentral.collegeboard.com website. These include at least four approved sample syllabi from real teachers-- and everyone is welcome to adapt these as appropriate. You will also find checklists so that you can quickly make sure that you are including everything needed, lists of the major goals expected for each course, lists of recommended or often used textbooks, lengthy official course descriptions detailing expectations for coverage, and much more. The College Board is really trying to make this process accessible and do-able for everyone involved. The bottom-line is that they want people leading any type of AP course to understand what what the program is all about-- they want teachers to realize what college-level learning involves.

Am I too late already? What are the deadlines for taking part? Right now for schools and distance programs, the deadline for submitting syllabi is June 1, 2007. Course syllabi can still be submitted after that-- they just won’t be listed in the first fall ledger going to all college admissions offices, and available online. This deadline may be different for homeschooling families-- again, just keep checking back at the website for the final info.

Oh, no, I’m bracing myself-- what will this audit process cost? There is no cost to schools or teachers or homeschool parents for taking part in the audit process. The College Board is footing the whole bill for this (they are paying the college professors who are actually looking over the syllabi, as well as many staff people involved in handling the new audit website and all the questions flying about from schools and individual teachers). They are doing this so that they can regain needed control over the use of their AP ‘brandname’.

We’ll have an update on the AP Audit in next issue!