Meeting the Challenge for Curricular Change in Spanish Language, Literature, and Culture

Courses in advanced placement (AP) Spanish language and AP Spanish literature are intended to provide students with college-level instruction comparable to a fifth- or sixth-semester conversation and composition experience and to a one-semester introduction to literature experience, respectively. In 2009, 110,723 students took the AP Spanish language exam. Of those, 72.9% self-identified as native or heritage speakers of the language; the remainder were standard students with instructionally mediated language learning experience only. Of the 16,663 students who took the AP Spanish literature exam in 2009, only 17.4% were standard students; other students were native or heritage speaker learners. Seventy percent of students in 2009 earned a score of 3 or higher on the language exam; for literature, 58.8% scored a 3 or higher. In the current paradigm, AP scores are reported to colleges and universities as numbers of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Students who score a 3 or higher are considered to be successfully prepared to enter the sequent college course.

In spite of clearly articulated college equivalencies for student performance on AP Spanish language and literature exams, a 2007 study conducted by Crux Research revealed that of the 100 postsecondary foreign language departments interviewed, college credit and placement policies varied widely.¹ See Table 1 on page 102. Fifty-three of the participating institutions indicated that students could receive credit for both AP Spanish language and AP Spanish literature; 46% offer no college credit for AP Spanish literature at any score point. To further compound issues related to the proficiency levels that students can achieve by the culmination of their high school AP Spanish learning experiences, the same Crux study surveyed 1,624 AP teachers to determine typical learning pathways for AP world language students. The results clearly showed that there is not a singular trajectory for AP preparation:

Table 1.

Semesters of College Credit and Placement for AP Spanish Language (n = 100)

These findings uncover a near total lack of articulation between college credits granted for AP achievement and further postsecondary instruction. Admissions officers are most often concerned with AP scores, given that granting credit hours AP has become a recruitment adopted to stay competitive. Many college departments are unfamiliar with the AP curricula as well as the solid methodologies that their secondary school counterpoints employ in the instructional delivery of the AP curriculum. Nor are skills acquired during AP study activated or extended into undergraduate study as a means to establish substantive links between what was learned in high school and what or how Spanish instruction in either language or literature is carried out at the college level. This national disconnect has long gone unreported until the Modern Language Association's (MLA's) "Report to the Teagle Foundation on the Undergraduate Major in Language and Literature."

The Process of Achieving Curricular Change

Given the variations in instructional preparation time prior to AP enrollment as cited above, and a lack of consistently applied college credit and placement policies, the College Board implemented an AP course and exam review process that led to a complete curricular redesign of its AP world language offerings. In order to ensure alignment of all AP world language curricula with the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century as well as with the parallel college courses, and keeping in mind the MLA's call to better integrate language, literature, and culture studies ("New Structures", "Undergraduate Major"), a commission of forty-eight secondary and postsecondary educators, working across languages, began the AP course and exam review process with the Standards as their working platform. The first step included the execution of a college curriculum study of Spanish faculty recommended by professional peers as college instructors of courses that closely paralleled AP Spanish language and literature courses (Conley, 2009). Commissioner-created AP performance expectations were used that were based on the K–12 performance guidelines (ACTFL). The study was executed in spring 2007 by the Educational Policy Improvement Center, and the results informed the...