This is a great question that has been asked for many decades.
First, I want to say that I am not speaking for The College Board. I am one of three EdTA members who sit on the The Pre-AP College Advisory committee, along with our friends in dance, music, and visual art.
For the last four years we have met regularly and have learned a great deal about the process of launching a new AP course. At this time AP is not considering an AP Theatre or AP Dance course. However, I'm very pleased that all four of the Arts have been included and are supported in the Pre AP courses, and I'm very proud of the rigorous units we have developed for theatre students which encompass directing, acting, dramaturgy, design, movement, and more. Our work is ongoing and more curriculum is scheduled to be developed next fall.
Further information on those courses can be found here-
https://pre-ap.collegeboard.org/courses/arts. More information on the entire Pre AP program is here-
https://pre-ap.collegeboard.org/about.
It has been suggested to us that dance and theatre programs encourage their school to offer the AP Capstone Seminar course where students can design their own project and use a theatre or dance topic.
In a fun twist of fate I am also a trained IB Theatre teacher, so I've been able to look at the work we've done through the lens of an honors theatre course. I also get a kick out of quoting my IB Theatre experiences under the roof of The College Board!
At the July EdTA Leadership Summit I usually give a short update on the Pre AP program, and I am available to talk to teachers in DC, in Lincoln, or NYC this fall. Look me up and I'll be glad to go into more details about the conversations the committee has had, and my personal opinions on what the future holds.
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Krista Carson Elhai
CA Educational Theatre Association, Past President
CA Educational Theatre Association, Past President
CA Thespians Director of Membership & New Teacher Outreach
Theatre Chair Claremont HS
An International Baccalaureate World School
Claremont CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-12-2019 09:44
From: Joel King
Subject: Why no AP theatre courses?
I'm sure this has been asked somewhere before but why aren't there any AP theatre courses? I spoke to some art teachers at my school who said that in the arts it has to be a course where students can do individual projects/portfolios or take an individual test. I understand this but I used to teach a Theatre Literature course that could be taught very similar to an AP Art History course. Also, if there were an AP Theatre Design class you could do something similar. This might encourage some of my college credit hungry students to do my theatre courses instead of leaving my classes to do more APs. Is there a way to propose this to the College board?
Just thinking out loud.
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Joel King
Atlanta GA
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