Understanding Advanced Placement Grading in BC

The Advanced Placement (AP) program provides the opportunity for high school students to enrol in advanced level coursework in a number of subjects, and potentially earn college or university transfer credit. AP is owned, created, and administered by the nonprofit College Board, and many post-secondary institutions provide transfer credit or advanced standing for completed AP exams, or will factor in AP scores into admissions decisions (or both). This project, sought to: (1) Gather and summarize existing AP grading practices at British Columbia high schools and school districts; (2) Analyze policies and practices for evaluating the AP grade and exam score information, and for grading AP standing at post-secondary institutions; (3) Determine whether any insight can be provided on the appropriate equivalencies between AP course grading and British Columbia high school course grades based on student post-secondary performance; and (4) Identify areas for future research and, if appropriate, the development of suggested practices. This research was conducted in the spring of 2017 and focused on grading practices in AP courses in both public and independent schools throughout British Columbia. As part of the research, surveys were conducted with BC AP teachers and coordinators, post-secondary admissions directors, and representatives of the College Board. A case study compared the post-secondary performance of students who participated in AP with those who did not participate in AP. Compared to students who did not participate in AP, AP students tend to be better prepared academically, complete more course-work, take additional high-level college courses related to their AP subjects, have superior leadership abilities, more likely to have a double major, and are twice as likely to move on to graduate or or professional school (Curry, MacDonald, & Morgan, 1999). This paper is broken into three major sections: the literature review which highlights published research related to AP, the environmental scan which covers the interviews with post-secondary admissions directors and BC AP teachers and coordinators, and the case study which overviews the analysis of grading equivalencies between students who participated in AP and those who did not. This case study, as well as the literature review related to Advanced Placement (AP), suggests that in certain contexts there are advantages to students participating in AP while in secondary school.