U.S. History Advanced Placement

Course Level:         Advanced Placement

Credits:                   5

Grade Level:           11

Prerequisite:           U.S. History Honors I or II or by administrative approval.

NJ Course Code:    04-104

The AP Program in United States History is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with problems and materials in United States history.  The program prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college courses.  Students should learn to assess historical materials – their relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability, and their importance – and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship.  An AP United States History course will thus assist students to develop the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively in an essay format.

The themes of study in the AP United States History course are American diversity, American identity, culture, demographic changes, economic transformations environment, globalization, politics and citizenship, reform, religion, slavery and its legacies in North America, and war and diplomacy.  These themes provide broad parameters for the course and may be expanded or modified for instruction.  Teachers and students should also feel free to develop their own course themes as they look at the American past through a variety of lenses and examine U.S. History from multiple perspectives.

Students will be expected to complete a summer assignment as part of course requirements.  This assignment will be due at the first class meeting in September.  More information can be found about this course at www.collegeboard.com.  Students must also meet the Honors Policy Criteria.

This course may be used as a substitution for U.S. History II.