Barrow County School System


Printed : 3/28/2024 6:31 PM ET
Board Meeting
05/01/2018 06:00 PM

Board of Education
Professional Development Center
PLEASE SILENCE CELL PHONES


ITEM : E.1. AP US Government and Politics Textbook Adoption - Melinda Kay

Recommendation
The Superintendent recommends the textbook for Advanced Placement (AP) US Government and Politics, course number 45.0520004, be removed from the table and approved.

Summary
The Barrow County School System currently offers Advanced Placement (AP) United States Government and Politics to 11th and 12th grade high school students. The College Board implemented a curriculum and exam redesign for the AP Government course beginning with the 2018-19 school year. AP Government is a course where the information can change rapidly, and success on the exam requires our students to have textbooks with correct, up-to-date information. Our current books, published in 2006 (12 years ago), contain information in them that has become outdated to the point of being incorrect. The current book is also missing information about important developments of the last 20 years, like the invention of SuperPACs as a result of the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC. 

The new book we are proposing for adoption has been updated to correct information that was no longer correct, and it includes the 2016 Presidential Election. This means examples used in the text are more modern examples that will resonate with our students. The new exam mandates that students have the most up-to-date knowledge possible.

The course redesign that will be implemented next year has reorganized the standards that the College Board requires students to know for the AP exam as well as redesigning the exam itself. The original course design included six content areas and four major course goals or objectives. The new design reduces and/or combines those content areas into five units, or Big Ideas as the book refers to them, each with their own set of Enduring Understandings.


Details
The consensus on the selection of the new textbook for AP US Government and Politics is the 2018 edition of Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy. The text is approved and promoted by the College Board and meets criteria for state approved textbooks.

Course Title:               Advanced Placement (AP) US Government and Politics
Course Number:          45.0520004
Text Title:                   Edwards, Government in America AP Edition - 2016 Presidential Election
ISBN:                         0134586571
Copyright:                  2018
Publisher:                   Pearson                   

Financial Impact
The price of the text is $138.97.
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