Open Letter to all APUSH Teachers

Regarding College Board’s recently launched CED Updates and their soon-to-be launched Classroom Tools

APUSH teachers everywhere. You surely know that:

• On May 21, 2019, CB updated nearly every one of its 38 AP CEDs.*
• On August 1, 2019, CB will launch some new and powerful classroom tools (personal progress checks, a progress dashboard, a question bank, etc.)

I’m curious to know what you make of all this.

My Take-Away

The above not only makes it possible, it also suggests, though only implicitly, that AP teachers everywhere can and should now put before their students an ever-increasing number of long-term, high-end, student and teacher driven project-based learning opportunities.

In other words, I think that both the May 1st Updates and August 1st Classroom Tools should be viewed as a big and bold yet soft-spoken attempt by CB to give AP teachers what they need to more fully respond to the call of the Common Core.

Facts in Support of My Take-Away

• Each update includes a prominently displayed pacing guide that appears to suggest that AP courses today can be taught in less time than any previous pacing guide has suggested.
• The APUSH pacing guide suggests that I need a mere 140 (45-minute) class periods to properly prep my students for the exam. Going that route will leave me with ten full class periods before the test for review and another 10–20 class periods along the way to be used for something other than test prep (such as the incorporation of PBLs). Under the updates, no course requires more than 140 (45-minute) class periods, with most calling for less. And that means in most schools, and especially those that start no later than mid September, teachers now have the class-time needed for PBLs.
• The Progress Checks have the potential for eliminating the need for teachers to give MCQ unit exams, thereby freeing up even more time for PBLs.
• This year’s AP Conference has included a number of presentations showing how PBL can be incorporated into AP. “It’s time for AP and PBL to join forces,” is what I’ve been told.
• The APGOV course outright requires a Civic Action Project (the best of which are PBL’s.)
• The current president of CB is David Coleman, the “architect of Common Core,” with some even saying “the father of Common Core.” And isn’t the calling of Common Core best responded to by PBL?

Your Take-Away

I now want to hear from you. For starters, do I have the facts right for your new pacing guide? In other words, does it indeed suggest that your course can now be taught in less time than any previous pacing guide has suggested?

Regardless, when thinking about your new CED Update and the AP Classoom Tools to launch August 1, if they result in your putting before your students for the first-time ever a PBL, what would that PBL look like?

And for those of you who have experience putting before your students one or more PBLs, what’s that look like? Goal, time spent, where/how is the finished work shared publically, to what degree do you allow voice and choice, time for reflection and revision, etc?

To respond to any/all of the above, click here.