Advanced+Placement+Courses

The most common program option for gifted high school students is advanced placement offerings (Davis and Callahan, 2008). According to Davis and Callahan (2008) Advanced Placement courses rose out of the need to make the transition from high school to college more fluid. The resulting program allowed high school students the opportunity to take freshmen level classes for both high school and college credit. This model addresses a major need for gifted students-- to be challenged at a high level in their subject matter area. Because high school teachers that have been trained to teach AP courses are in charge of providing direct instruction, this program also helps to address the issue of staffing by using general education teachers as the ones in charge of providing high level content and thus allowing the gifted facilitator to implement the IEP through consultation services. Research by Rogers (1992, 2002, 2005) show that advanced placement programs can have an effect of almost one third year's additional academic growth. The number though is largely dependent on how many AP classes the student chooses to take. Results from research about how students perceive Advanced Placement programs is also positive. According to research by the University of Oregon and the Oregon State Department of Education (1999) students saw AP courses as "relief of high school boredom." Students also stated that Advanced Placement courses helped better prepare them for college (Hellerman, 1994). Also, according to a study by Hertberg-Davis, Callahan & Kyburg (2006) students felt the AP courses were the most challenging courses that they had during their high school career.

Although far from conclusive, preliminary research does support at least a positive correlation between taking an Advanced Placement course and success in college. In fact, research by the National Center for Educational Accountability (2004) found that even students who earned less than a 3 on the AP Test (did not earn a high enough score for college credit) still were twice as likely to graduate from college within five years as opposed to a student who did not take AP courses. A study by Morgan & Crone in 1993 showed that results from the AP exam were a "good" predictor for grades in subsequent college courses. Finally, Breland & Oltman (2001) and Morgan & Ramist (1998) explained in their research that those students that took the AP examination and earned college credit typically had "significantly" higher grades than those that took the college courses.

What are the implications for gifted programs based on these findings? Overall, Advanced Placement courses seem to be enjoyed by those students that take them and these same students seem to feel that these are the courses that challenge them the most in high school. With one concern for educators of gifted students being that these students tend to get bored and "check out", the Advanced Placement program offers gifted students a challenging course, a helpful transition from the world of high school to the world of college and a way to enter college with credits in line and thus saving perhaps both time and money. It seems hard to find many concerns with these positives.

There are some concerns to be addressed, however. While Advanced Placement classes do help in challenging and motivating gifted students, is this really a program? It seems almost an easy way out for a gifted facilitator to say go take AP classes and then let general education teachers in charge of those classes take care of the gifted students. What is role of the gifted teacher? Perhaps providing differentiated curriculum for enriching these classes even further with supports for students that are gifted? Research also suggest that too much emphasis is placed on the Advanced Placement Test (Davis, 2006) and that the teachers delivered the class much like a large freshmen introductory class with most of the focus on lecture and test. Also, numerous researchers have stated equity concerns especially in terms of the underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic students taking AP classes and the AP test (Gandara, 2004; Miller, 2004).

In conclusion, Advanced Placement classes and the Advanced Placement Test offer a challenging alternative for gifted high school students. Research supports academic growth and typically positive feelings by students towards these classes. Is this a stand alone gifted program? The answer is no. Additional support for other learning goals by the gifted teacher is needed beyond only taking Advanced Placement classes. Theses classes however, are beneficial for gifted students both during their time in high school and also as they prepare to make the transition to college.