Record Staff Report
Assumption High School announced Dec. 12 that it will offer a new Advanced Placement (AP) Capstone diploma program starting in the fall of 2017.
The program will consist of two courses, AP seminar and AP research courses typically taken in the sophomore or junior years. Students who earn a score of three or higher on both courses, plus a similar score on four additional AP courses, will earn the diploma, according to a press release from the school.
Students who earn a score of three or higher on the AP seminar and AP research courses only will receive the AP Seminar and Research Certificate.
According to the press release, the AP seminar course uses a variety of materials, such as “articles, research studies and foundational and philosophical texts” to prepare students to look at “real-world issues from multiple perspectives.”
In the AP research course students will have the opportunity to “design, plan and conduct a yearlong research-based investigation on a topic of individual interest, documenting their process with a portfolio,” the release said.
“We are so excited to add the AP Capstone diploma program to our well-established AP curriculum at Assumption High School. AP Capstone fits perfectly with Assumption’s philosophy of learning,” said the school’s principal Martha Tedesco. “It builds upon the collaboration and research skills, which have been a focus of learning in our classrooms for the last two decades.”
The new diploma program was developed in response to “feedback from higher education faculty and college admission officers” and is designed to complement other AP courses and exams, the release added.
