Press Releases

College Board to Hold 2005 Advanced Placement National Conference in Houston, July 14–18

07/13/05

NEW YORK—More than 2,200 educators from around the country are expected to gather at the Hilton Americas-Houston Hotel in Houston, Texas, from Thursday, July 14, through Monday, July 18, for the fourth annual College Board Advanced Placement National Conference (APNC). The 2005 APNC will mark the launch of the AP® Program's fiftieth anniversary celebrations, which will be held at College Board events from coast to coast throughout the year.

The thousands of attendees at the 2005 APNC will include AP teachers, Pre-AP® teachers, high school and college administrators, AP Coordinators, school counselors, and college and university faculty from all over the world. Participants will be treated to a unique blend of professional development workshops and information sessions. This four-day event will enrich participants' educational careers and deepen their understanding of the AP Program, which is helping to open the doors of higher education to a larger and more diverse group of academically prepared young people.

Professional development workshops and sessions designed to help educators successfully plan, build on, and expand their school's AP program as well as their own content knowledge will be key features of the conference. Other highlights include:

• An AP Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition. The exhibition will open on Thursday night and remain open throughout the conference. A highlight of the exhibition will be a chronological and thematic history of the AP Program that will include a special feature on AP teachers and the AP Readings, during which experienced teachers and professors come together to grade AP Exams. Among other historical documents and images will be the original free-response sections of the 12 subjects offered in AP's first exam administration in 1956.
• The AP Studio Art Exhibit 2005. Also opening on Thursday night will be the AP Studio Art Exhibit 2005 at the Exhibit Hall. This presentation of accomplished work by AP Studio Art students will showcase pieces in a variety of media, representing a great diversity of content, styles, and techniques.
• AP: Fifty Years of Higher Standards. On Friday night, the short film AP's 50th: Higher Standards, Higher Learning will premiere during the Opening Plenary Session. Ray Simon, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, and Keith Miller, director of the Office of Overseas Schools at the U.S. Department of State, will join College Board President Gaston Caperton onstage to open the conference and officially kick off the celebrations. Celebrated educator and author Dr. Calvin Mackie will address the audience.
• Plenary Session. On Saturday afternoon, Nina Rees, assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, will address the conference audience. She will also introduce Saturday's plenary speaker, noted political analyst, columnist, and author Juan Williams.
• AP's Fiftieth Anniversary Gala Dinner and Reception. On Saturday evening, the Houston Museum of Natural Science will open its galleries exclusively for conference attendees, all of whom are invited to AP's Fiftieth Anniversary Gala Dinner and Reception. The Houston-based Jackson Truitt Jazz Trio will perform jazz classics.
• Closing Plenary Session. On Sunday, conference attendees will have the opportunity to hear the prominent scientist Dr. Mae Jemison, who made history as the first African American woman to travel in space. She will be introduced by Adam Chavarria, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

Throughout the year, the AP Program will honor the students and educators who have made the AP Program a success and who will shape its future. The College Board assumed administration of the AP Program at its inception in September 1955. At the close of that academic year, 1,300 students took 2,200 end-of-course AP Examinations. This spring, more than 1.2 million students took more than 2.1 million AP Examinations worldwide. These students took AP courses at 15,000 schools around the globe, with participating schools offering, on average, seven AP courses from which their students could choose. The AP Program offers students a chance to take college-level course work while still in high school. Students who earn qualifying grades on AP Examinations can be granted credit or advanced standing at most U.S. colleges and universities.

Over the last four years, the AP National Conference has quickly established itself as a major event for the AP and Pre-AP communities. It is the only national conference that focuses on providing complete strategies for middle and high school teachers and administrators involved in the AP Program and Pre-AP. Ninety percent of the 2004 APNC attendees surveyed indicated that the techniques and content they learned at the conference would change the way they do their jobs.

All APNC sessions are open to members of the press. For more information, contact Terry Powell, cell phone: (646) 247-8873, or visit www.collegeboard.com/apnc.