A Message from the AP® Program’s Vice President

To preserve these benefits for AP students, AP must evolve. If we want AP students to remain at the top of international rankings, fortified to succeed in higher education and to contribute to a global society, AP must regularly draw upon advances in each discipline, as well as on new research about how students learn and retain their knowledge. Only in this way will students gain maximum benefits from their AP experiences.

The upcoming changes to AP courses and exams are exciting because they support what many great teachers are already doing: cultivating students’ understanding of key concepts and development of intellectual skills by using a limited number of appropriate content examples, rather than by marching through an exhaustive "checklist" of required content. The new AP learning objectives have been designed to allow teachers flexibility and time to cover concepts, issues and content that is of interest to their students and relevant to their local environment.

I can boast about these changes to AP because they are not changes made by College Board staff, but by the AP community: college faculty and AP teachers from highly regarded institutions around the world. An important consideration for these faculty committees throughout this process was ensuring that the changes to AP would strengthen students’ qualifications for college credit. I am pleased to report that the vetting of these new curricula with policymakers at colleges and universities nationwide has confirmed the committees’ belief that students developing the knowledge and skills delineated in the revised AP courses will be more deserving of college credit and better prepared for success in their subsequent university courses.

Change is never easy; however, any additional upfront investment of time on the part of AP teachers to assimilate these changes will be rewarded with students leaving your classrooms able to retain and apply in college and their careers the knowledge and skills essential to the 21st–century practice of your disciplines. We are committed to providing you with resources and support, and will communicate regularly with your school administrators to ensure they are aware of these changes and the need to support you in making them.

On behalf of the College Board, please accept our praise and appreciation for the reputation you and your students have created as passionate, lifelong learners, and please know that we are eager to preserve that reputation by providing you with AP courses and exams that foster and uphold the best that you can achieve in your classrooms.

With highest regards,

Trevor Packer
Vice President