The original plan to split World History into two years seems like the best way of covering all the material adequately, but that works only if the two parts are tested with two different exams, which College Board doesn’t want to do.
Some history professors interviewed in the article said they will urge their colleges not to accept AP credit for the exam if the change goes into effect. I think it’s more likely that colleges will begin giving credit only for World History II / World Civ II with a 4/5 on the AP World History exam.
Why not have World history focus on History TO 1450/1500, designed as a sophomore class, with an exam in May like all APs?
Then have European History 1500-today and Non European History 1500-today (plus APUSH) seen as Jr/Sr courses?
There’d be different combinations, just like there are for the Sciences.
@MYOS1634 Alternatively, why not have high schools design and implement their own curricula instead of them drinking the Kool-Aid provided by the CB? This change only reinforces the eurocentric approach to history prevailing in HS classrooms, IMO
After all, the CB did such a bang-up job implementing the transition from AP Physics B to AP Physics 1/2. sarcasm
As it is now, many top colleges don’t give credit to APWH at all. In part, I suspect, since it’s predominantly a sophomore course in high schools.
For some schools it’s the only way to have a reasonably rigorous course.
Schools that don’t want or don’t need APs wouldn’t offer the new courses but within the parameters of the course being reformed, I agree with historians that the pre 1340 period should be kept and have its own exam.
No, I know, And I don’t want to get off topic on the merits of AP, as there is an active thread on the subject. But if we were keeping the options within the auspices of the AP curriculum, I would rather have the CB have n AP pre-1450 WH course and exam as an alternative (and IMO a replacement) for APHG as a freshman course.
I’m not in total disagreement that the current course is too broad; My HS alma mater, which doesn’t even offer AP history classes and is not known for easy courses, revised its required WH course from 3 terms to 4 to make it more manageable
^ that’s pretty much what I’m advocating: a gateway AP course that deals with world history up to 1450.
And then a choice between European, American, and non European history, all starting around 1500. (I’m sure there’d be a better title than ‘non European’.) I’d cut the European content out of WH, which is redundant with AP Euro.
I agree the current apwh content bites off more than it can chew.
The problem specific to history APs may be that, even though many colleges have what are nominally general survey US history, world history, and European history courses, those colleges’ courses may focus on specific subtopics or themes, which may differ at different colleges. So the AP courses have to cover all of the subtopics and themes, leading to the “mile wide inch deep” complaints (which appear valid for the history APs, but not necessarily to other APs that this complaint is often generalized to). But then many colleges still do not accept the AP scores for subject credit anyway.
It’s possible that the choice of later world history was made to better align with state standards. I don’t know about other states, but California history standards call for the following if a student is not taking AP/IB courses. 6th and 7th grade cover earlier world history; 10th grade covers essentially what the new AP World History course will cover.
6th grade: Ancient Civilizations
7th grade: Medieval and Early Modern Times (~300 AD to Renaissance/Reformation)
8th grade: US History: start to early industrial America (~1914)
9th grade: Elective Courses in History/Social Science (some high schools don’t offer this)
**10th grade: World History: The Modern World **
11th grade: US History: ~1914 to present
12th grade: US Gov’t (1 semester)
12th grade: Economics (1 Semester)
I’m not advocating avoiding it, nor is that wise. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a HS history department that offers meaningful electives covering Lain American history or Asian history or… you get the idea.
You would need to take away the optional part for American history. I don’t think there’s a US HS that does not (rightly) require a year of US history for graduation.
I’m not a history teacher, so maybe my view isn’t as informed as it should be.
But the AP is a test to give credit for one solitary course. In this case, they’re changing the parameters of that one solitary course.
That’s not to say that you can’t learn what happened before 1450, merely that that information would not be on the test for this particular course. That information could certainly be taught in other courses that colleges could offer— or they could choose not to accept the AP credit if they weren’t happy with the change to the AP in World History.
As a math teacher, I see so many kids who know a little about a lot of topics, but aren’t really fluent in any of them. They can solve a quadratic if the leading coefficient is 1, they can solve a verbal problem if it’s laid out just right, they can find the area of a triangle if they have the base and height, but not if they have all 3 sides.
Perhaps it’s this issue that the AP is trying to deal with. By limiting the years included in the course, they’re hoping to ensure that kids taking the AP know the resulting material in better depth.
I don’t see this as a bad idea, beyond the fact that they would have to rename the course to reflect the change in focus.
OK. Thanks for clarifying. However, for many, that won’t work either. Many states have a US gov and/or Econ requirement for graduation, which is often taken senior year. Without doubling up (which often causes other problems) and since USH is traditionally a junior course, that limits freshman and sophomore years to study non-US history.
I think this is the fourth change in the start date. Pity the poor APWH teachers who have to constantly change their syllabus.
When the course debuted, it started in 1000 CE. So it covered a thousand years, somewhat manageable, though the start date was pretty arbitrary. Next they decided to push back the start date to 600 CE so the rise of Islam would be covered. Then they went all the way back to 8000 BCE, though the course description made clear that the earliest periods would have less emphasis on the exam. How do you teach 10,000 years of world history? No wonder teachers were screaming.
But starting in 1450 CE is a pretty radical change, and makes the course focus on the last 500 years of world history, when European civilizations have been ascendant. Seems like a strike against the whole original intent of the course. Why don’t they just go back to 1000 CE or 600?
Some schools do have world history as a two-year, fresh/soph course. At my daughter’s old school she taught “premodern world history” to freshman. She started at the beginning and went up to the Renaissance. The sophomore teachers picked up from there. This was NOT an AP course though. But at least her students got ancient Egypt, China and India, Greece/Rome/Persia, western hemisphere, etc.
The point of AP world was to teach something different from APUSH and AP euro. That’s why the change is problematic. Since the course really was two courses - Ancient history and non European history - there’d be some sense in teaching ap ancient history as a 9-10th gateway course the way AP Human Geography is, as skieurope said. Then in offering the “non European modern and contemporary history” course for 10th or 12th grade, the way AP Euro is.
(Not all 6-7th grades teach that, and generally as part of ‘social studies’ including units on various, unrelated other topics.)
In our high school in NY our kids did Global History as a two year course. My younger son did AP World for the second year - they had to go in and fill in some stuff that was in the AP curriculum but it generally worked out quite well.
Our curriculum teaches World History as 2 courses. Grade 11 is to the 15th century and grade 12 is since the 15th century. AP World History is tied to the grade 12 course at DS19’s school. Some schools alternatively offer European history as their grade 12 history offering. I’m not sure how much overlap there is between the two courses.
DS19 was originally going to take AP World History next year but it conflicted with AP Calculus BC on his timetable so will not be taking it. Perhaps it’s just as well. I’m certain he will be choosing history as an elective in first year university as a minimum.
I have taught APWH for 7 years. I have been wondering if this change is leading towards creating an AP ancient history class (which I would LOVE to teach).
As it stands - the curriculum post 1450 is far less Eurocentric than one might imagine. I think a new one would follow that same vein. APWH is very much about defining connections between cultures, not presenting the “traditional” views.