AP ® Effective Fall 2017 United States History INCLUDING: ü Course framework with contextual information COURSE AND EXAM DESCRIPTION ü Instructional section ü A practice exam AP ® AP® United States History Course and Exam Description Effective Fall 2017 AP COURSE AND EXAM DESCRIPTIONS ARE UPDATED PERIODICALLY. Please visit AP Central (apcentral.com) to determine whether a more recent course and exam description PDF is available. About the College Board The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education.
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AP Equity and Access Policy ® The College Board strongly encourages educators to make equitable access a guiding principle for their AP programs by giving all willing and academically prepared students the opportunity to participate in AP. We encourage the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented. Schools should make every effort to ensure their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population. The College Board also believes that all students should have access to academically challenging course work before they enroll in AP classes, which can prepare them for AP success.
It is only through a commitment to equitable preparation and access that true equity and excellence can be achieved. © 2017 The College Board. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP Central, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Visit the College Board on the Web: www. Contents Changes in this Edition of the Course and Exam Description v Acknowledgments vi About AP 1 Offering AP Courses and Enrolling Students 2 How AP Courses and Exams Are Developed 2 How AP Exams Are Scored 3 Using and Interpreting AP Scores 3 Additional Resources 3 About the AP U. History Course 4 Participating in the AP Course Audit 5 AP U. History Course Framework 7 Overview 7 I.
AP History Disciplinary Practices and Reasoning Skills 8 II. Thematic Learning Objectives 10 Theme 1: American and National Identity 12 Theme 2: Politics and Power 13 Theme 3: Work, Exchange, and Technology 14 Theme 4: Culture and Society 15 Theme 5: Migration and Settlement 16 Theme 6: Geography and the Environment 17 Theme 7: America in the World 18 III. Concept Outline 19 Historical Periods 19 A Note About Periodization 20 The Founding Documents 20 Using the Concept Outline to Plan Instruction 20 Period 1: 1491–1607 21 Period 2: 1607–1754 27 Period 3: 1754–1800 35 Period 4: 1800–1848 47 Period 5: 1844–1877 57 Period 6: 1865–1898 65 Period 7: 1890–1945 73 Period 8: 1945–1980 83 Period 9: 1980–Present 93 AP U. History Instructional Approaches 99 Organizational Approaches 99 Selecting and Using Course Materials 100 Developing the Disciplinary Practices and Reasoning Skills 103 Increasing Depth and Managing Breadth Through Instructional Choices 117 Strategies for Instruction 119 AP U.
History Exam 129 Exam Overview 129 How Student Learning Is Assessed on the AP Exam 130 Exam Components 131 Practice Exam 133 Answer Key and Question Alignment to Course Framework 163 Contact Us 166 Changes in this Edition of the Course and Exam Description Changes in this Edition of the Course and Exam Description This edition of the course and exam description updates the 2015 edition with the following changes, which respond to teachers' concerns and promote the goals of flexibility and in-depth instruction that are critical to college-level history courses. n The practices and skills assessed on the exam have been reduced and streamlined, with the skills of periodization and synthesis removed. n The exam design has been reconceived to allow more time for in-depth student responses on free-response questions and increase the amount of choice and flexibility on the exam to support local institutional curricular focus. The changes include: w The document-based question will be limited to topics from periods 3 to 8 in the course.
w The long essay question choices will continue to focus on the same theme and skill, now allowing for students to select among three options, each focusing on a different time period in the course. w The number of required short-answer questions has been reduced to three. Students will be given a choice among two options for the final required short- answer question, each one focusing on a different time period. w 10 minutes have been added to Section II (the document-based question and the long essay question).
w w The rubrics for the document-based question and the long essay questions have been streamlined. Both are available on AP Central. There have been no changes to the themes, learning objectives, or concept outline material for this course since the 2015 edition. AP United States History Course and Exam Description Return to Table of Contents v © 2017 The College Board Acknowledgments Acknowledgments The College Board would like to acknowledge the following committee members, consultants, and reviewers for their assistance with and commitment to the development of this curriculum and assessment.
All individuals and their affiliations were current at the time of contribution. Fred Anderson, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO Juliana Barr, Duke University, Durham, NC Julie Bell, James Madison School, Houston, TX Kevin Byrne, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN Christopher Capozzola, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA Billie Jean Clemens, Swain County High School, Bryson City, NC Ted Dickson, Providence Day School, Charlotte, NC Rosemary Ennis, Sycamore High School, Cincinnati, OH Geri Hastings, Catonsville High School, Baltimore, MD Jason George, The Bryn Mawr School, Baltimore, MD Christine Heyrman, University of Delaware, Newark, DE John P. Irish, Carroll Senior High School, Southlake, TX Kathleen Kean, Nicolet High School, Glendale, WI David Kennedy, Stanford University, Stanford, CA Elizabeth Kessel, Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, MD Stuart Lade, Brainerd High School, Brainerd, MN Emma Lapsansky, Haverford College, Haverford, PA Mary Lopez, Schaumburg High School, Schaumburg, IL Maria Montoya, New York University, New York, NY Cassandra Osborne, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge, TN E.
Anthony Rotundo, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA James Sabathne, Hononegah Community High School, Rockton, IL Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University, Washington, DC Suzanne Sinke, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL Timothy Thurber, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA Lawrence Charap, Senior Director, AP Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment AP United States History Course and Exam Description Return to Table of Contents vi © 2017 The College Board About AP About AP The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program® (AP) enables students to pursue college- level studies while still in high school. Through more than 30 courses, each culminating in a rigorous exam, AP provides willing and academically prepared students with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both. Taking AP courses also demonstrates to college admission officers that students have sought out the most rigorous course work available to them. Each AP course is modeled upon a comparable college course, and college and university faculty play a vital role in ensuring that AP courses align with college-level standards.
Talented and dedicated AP teachers help AP students in classrooms around the world develop and apply the content knowledge and skills they will need later in college. Each AP course concludes with a college-level assessment developed and scored by college and university faculty as well as experienced AP teachers. AP Exams are an essential part of the AP experience, enabling students to demonstrate their mastery of college-level course work. Most four-year colleges and universities in the United States and universities in more than 60 countries recognize AP in the admission process and grant students credit, placement, or both on the basis of successful AP Exam scores.org/ apcreditpolicy to view AP credit and placement policies.
Performing well on an AP Exam means more than just the successful completion of a course; it is a gateway to success in college. Research consistently shows that students who receive a score of 3 or higher on AP Exams typically experience greater academic success in college and have higher graduation rates than their non-AP peers.1 Additional AP studies are available at www. 1 See the following research studies for more details: Linda Hargrove, Donn Godin, and Barbara Dodd, College Outcomes Comparisons by AP and Non-AP High School Experiences (New York: The College Board, 2008). Chrys Dougherty, Lynn Mellor, and Shuling Jian, The Relationship Between Advanced Placement and College Graduation (Austin, Texas: National Center for Educational Accountability, 2006).
AP United States History Course and Exam Description Return to Table of Contents 1 © 2017 The College Board About AP Offering AP Courses and Enrolling Students Each AP course and exam description details objectives and expectations of an AP course. The AP Program unequivocally supports the principle that each school develops and implements its own curriculum that will enable students to develop the content knowledge and skills described here. Schools wishing to offer AP courses must participate in the AP Course Audit, a process through which AP teachers’ syllabi are reviewed by college faculty. The AP Course Audit was created at the request of College Board members who sought a means for the College Board to provide teachers and administrators with clear guidelines on curricular and resource requirements for AP courses and to help colleges and universities validate courses marked “AP” on students’ transcripts.
This process ensures that AP teachers’ syllabi meet or exceed the curricular and resource expectations that college and secondary school faculty have established for college-level courses. For more information on the AP Course Audit, visit www. The College Board strongly encourages educators to make equitable access a guiding principle for their AP programs by giving all willing and academically prepared students the opportunity to participate in AP. We encourage the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underserved.
Schools should make every effort to ensure their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population. The College Board also believes that all students should have access to academically challenging course work before they enroll in AP classes, which can prepare them for AP success. It is only through a commitment to equitable preparation and access that true equity and excellence can be achieved. How AP Courses and Exams Are Developed AP courses and exams are designed by committees of college faculty and expert AP teachers who ensure that each AP subject reflects and assesses college-level expectations.
To find a list of each subject’s current AP Development Committee members, please visit collegeboard. AP Development Committees define the scope and expectations of the course, articulating through a course framework what students should know and be able to do upon completion of the AP course. Their work is informed by data collected from a range of colleges and universities to ensure that AP coursework reflects scholarship and developments in the discipline. The AP Development Committees are also responsible for drawing clear and well-articulated connections between the AP course and AP Exam—work that includes designing and approving exam specifications and exam questions.
The AP Exam development process is a multiyear endeavor; all AP Exams undergo extensive review, revision, piloting, and analysis to ensure that questions are high quality and fair and that there is an appropriate spread of difficulty across the questions. Throughout AP course and exam development, the College Board gathers feedback from various stakeholders in both secondary schools and higher education institutions.