Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in discussion-list
post "Re: Question About AP" [Hake (2011)].
The abstract reads:
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ABSTRACT: EDDRA2's Susan Ohanian wrote: "Someone asked me for
research questioning Advanced Placement." I suggest Susan check out
"AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program"
[Sadler et al. (2010).]
In his review of that book Scott Jaschik wrote (paraphrasing):
"Coeditor Sadler summed up by stating 'Advanced Placement courses
offer students an opportunity to study a subject in a very rigorous
and demanding fashion [and] college admissions officers are correct
to assume that success in the courses is a meaningful measure of
academic achievements.'
But if it's so rigorous and such a good gauge of achievement why are
"Force Concept Inventory" average pretest scores so abysmally low for
university students entering introductory courses, many of whom have
taken AP-Physics?
An older resource relevant to AP courses is the NRC's "Learning and
Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in
U.S. High Schools" [Gollub et al. (2002)].
BTW -Susan Ohanian wages unrelenting battle with the "Standardistas"
at <http://www.susanohanian.org/>.
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"The committee found that existing programs for advanced study are
frequently inconsistent with the results of the research on cognition
and learning. This report describes how program developers, schools,
and educators can remedy this situation by considering all components
of educational programs: curriculum, instruction, ongoing and
end-of-course assessments, and teacher preparation and professional
development."
Gollub et al. (2002)
REFERENCES [All URL's accessed on 11 April 2011 and shortened by
<http://bit.ly/>.]
Gollub, J.P., M.W. Bertenthal, J.B. Labov, and P.C. Curtis. 2002.
"Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics
and Science in U.S. High Schools," National Academies Press, online
at <http://bit.ly/eHqBjg>.
Hake, R.R. 2011. " Re: Question About AP" online on the OPEN! AERA-L
archives at <http://bit.ly/i3uB5u>. Post of 11 Apr 2011 16:43:01
-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete
post are being distributed to various discussion lists and are also
online on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/gaORYu> with a
provision for comments.
Sadler, P.M., G. Sonnert, R.H. Tai, and K. Klopfenstein, eds. 2010.
"AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program."
Harvard Education Press, publisher's information at
<http://bit.ly/gP5jpp>. Amazon.com information at
<http://amzn.to/fh5Tly>.