By KAYLA J. MARSH
Staff Writer
HAZLET — Following the launch of a 1:1 Chromebook Initiative and the establishment of a state-of-the-art Fabrication Laboratory, Raritan High School has become the latest school to implement the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) Capstone Program.
The AP Capstone program allows students to develop skills such as research, collaboration and communication, necessary for post-secondary academic success.
“Basically what this does is it adds two courses — AP Seminar and AP Research — and the students that complete those courses and receive a three or higher on four AP exams of their choosing will be able to receive the AP Capstone diploma, which is a distinguishing award for those programs that have advanced placement courses,” Superintendent of Schools Bernard Bragen said.
Students who earn scores of three or higher on the two AP Capstone exams, but do not take or earn qualifying scores on four additional AP Exams, will receive the AP Seminar and Research Certificate.
“There are only 600 schools worldwide, and we are one of only five in the state to implement this capstone diploma project,” he said.
According to Bragen, Raritan High School currently offers 19 Advanced Placement courses and will start AP Seminar this fall.
“This is about providing more opportunities for our students to have increased rigor and have more opportunities for them to demonstrate their proficiency with rigorous courses,” he said.
The AP Seminar course, typically taken in 10th or 11th grade, Bragen said, will equip students to explore academic and real-world issues from multiple perspectives.
Using a variety of materials, such as articles and philosophical texts, students are challenged to explore complex questions and to understand and evaluate opposing viewpoints while interpreting and synthesizing information to develop, communicate and defend arguments based on evidence discovered.
According to Bragen, teachers will have the ability to choose themes based on student interests — whether local, regional, national, or global in nature.
“This gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their expertise in things in which they are interested,” he said.
Students are assessed through a year-end written exam as well as through an individual project and a team project completed during the year.
The AP Research course will allow students to design, plan and conduct a yearlong investigation on a topic of their choosing with support from experts at the school level or in the community.
Bragen said students build upon research and analyzing skills learned in the AP Seminar course and at the end of the course should have the confidence to present and orally defend their own scholarly academic research.
“This innovative program is preparing a broader, more diverse student population for college and career success,” he said.
“It took a lot of effort from our administrative team all working in unison, but we are excited to provide increased rigor and more academic opportunities for our students [and] while I’m not sure how many students are going to take the courses, I anticipate this will greatly interest our students at Raritan High.”