Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools: Report of the Content Panel for Chemistry (2002)

2. Institutions awarding AP examination–based course credit or advanced placement should consider doing so only for a grade of 4 or 5, not for a grade of 3. The College Board is currently conducting studies on the validity of a grade of 3 for the awarding of college credit, and the panel applauds this effort. However, until that study is complete, it remains unclear whether students who have earned a score of 3 have achieved sufficient understanding of the subject matter at a level comparable to college courses to merit credit and placement out of the introductory course.

3. The chemistry panel recommends that to be effective, advanced courses in chemistry must reflect recommendations in the areas of content, pedagogy, and assessment contained in the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996).

1. The chemistry panel recommends that to be a qualified AP or IB teacher, the teacher must have a B.S. or B.A. degree in chemistry (which includes a two-semester physical chemistry course sequence with laboratories), and preferably an M.A. or M.S. degree in chemistry. The chemistry panel does not view a B.S. in science education as being adequate preparation for these teachers, nor does the College Board.

2. A qualified advanced study chemistry instructor should have experience with effective current and emerging approaches to chemistry teaching and assessment in the subject and their applications to the AP and IB Chemistry courses.

3. The qualified AP or IB Chemistry teacher should have a working familiarity with teaching technologies (e.g., Web, electronic media, laboratory instrumentation) and their appropriate uses.

4. There should be required periodic, funded professional development opportunities, including content instruction, research participation, and pedagogy workshops, for teachers of advanced courses in chemistry. This recommendation is consonant with the Glenn Commission’s description of what constitutes professional development: “a planned, collaborative educational process of continuous improvement for teachers that helps them to do five things: (1) deepen their knowledge of the subject(s) they are teaching; (2) sharpen their teaching skills in the classroom; (3) keep up with developments in their fields and in education generally; (4) generate and contribute new knowledge to the profession; and (5) increase their ability to monitor students’ work so they can provide constructive feedback to students and appropriately redirect their teaching” (NCMST, 2001, p. 18).

5. Professional development opportunities, such as the experience of teaching courses or laboratories at colleges or universities and undertaking original research in industry, at government laboratories, or in collaboration with college faculty, would be particularly valuable for AP and IB Chemistry teachers. High school–system personnel policies

should encourage rather than inhibit such professional development activities during the academic year.

6. AP and IB Chemistry teachers can profit from discussions with each other. School districts and schools should find ways to initiate and sustain such conversations and to share them with a wider audience. Communication about areas of common interest between chemistry faculties in high schools and those teaching general chemistry in institutions of higher education would be extremely helpful for both communities (see also the recommendations under Vision 4 in Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology [NRC, 1999]).

7. AP and IB Chemistry teachers should be participating members of professional organizations such as the National Science Teachers Association and the American Chemical Society’s Division of Chemical Education. Through such participation, teachers gain a sense of belonging to a community of professionals who are similarly inclined to excel in their teaching. They gain access to colleagues and resources that would have been largely inaccessible without membership.

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