Advanced Placement (AP)[4] is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board.

Colleges and universities in the US and elsewhere may grant placement and course credit to students who obtain qualifying scores on the examinations.

The AP curriculum for each of the various subjects is created for the College Board by a panel of experts and college-level educators in that academic discipline.

[5] After the end of World War II, the Ford Foundation created a fund that supported committees studying education.

In the 1955–56 school year, it was nationally implemented in ten subjects: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, History, French, German, Spanish, and Latin.

The College Board, a non-profit organization[9] based in New York City, has run the AP program since 1955.

In 2007, hedge fund manager and philanthropist Whitney Tilson helped create a $1 million program (called Reach, for Rewarding Achievement) funded by philanthropists to pay students in 25 public schools and six Roman Catholic private schools in New York City who do well on Advanced Placement exams.

[21] In the 2022–2023 school year, College Board launched a pilot AP African American Studies course.

[26] Some countries, such as Germany, that do not offer general admission to their universities and colleges for holders of an American high school diploma without preparatory courses will directly admit students who have completed a specific set of AP tests, depending on the subject they wish to study there.

Starting with the May 2013 AP Examination Administration, the College Board launched an Internet-based score reporting service.

The state of Florida reimburses school districts for the exam costs of students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses.

College Board found that 33.2% of public high school graduates from the class of 2013 had taken an AP exam, compared to 18.9% in 2003.

Lichten appears to have been the first to question whether AP can maintain high academic standards while experiencing explosive growth.

[72] Also in 2024, Hess noted that an increasing proportion of students who take and pass AP courses is not ready for college-level work.

Like Sadler's study, both found that AP students who passed their exam scored highest in other measures of academic achievement.

[citation needed] It is argued that the pursuit of extrinsic reward is not an accurate reflection of intrinsic interest in course material.

[citation needed] Many other criteria should also be employed to judge a student including standardized test scores, research experience, breadth and the level of courses taken, and academic-related extracurriculars performance.

[citation needed] Writing honors thesis or semi-independent research in a subject may be more signal of interest or academic potential than achieving the label of "Advanced Placement" student.