AP World History Changes Coming?

AP World History is often times the first Advanced Placement class a student in Upper St. Clair takes, as it is the first one available to the majority of students. So, what happens when the course’s curriculum is changed?

College Board, the company that offers AP exams, decided to remove 9,000 years of history from the AP World History course. This meant the course would start at around 1400 CE. This came after years of complaints from educators saying there simply wasn’t enough time to cover all 10,000 years of history in depth. The College Board received further backlash from making changes, which essentially meant removing 9,000 out of 10,000 years covered. So, the company restored a few hundred years and had the course start at 1200 CE.

Siddarth Konduru, an Upper St. Clair alumnus who took and passed the old AP World History course, was asked about his opinion on the change, and he replied, “I believe that the change is good, if it means the material will be examined more in depth. I felt we had to move too quickly through the course and we weren’t able to gain a deep understanding of the content.”

“I would no longer want to take the class if the ancient history parts were taken out. I find those parts of history to be the most interesting!” said Raniya Kethavath, a freshman who was asked if she would still be taking the class after the curriculum change.

However, for those who desire an AP class with ancient history covered, there is some hope. 2,500 high schools must sign forms to show their interest in the AP World History Ancient course, and on top of that, 100 colleges must offer credit for the exam. Then only will the College Board begin to start developing such a course.