AP European History
Higher Education Study
Section 1: An Introduction
Victoria Thompson
Ariel Foster
Associate Professor, Department of History,
Arizona State University
Executive Director,
AP College and University Services
Co-chair, AP European History Curriculum
Development and Assessment Committee
Topics
I.
AP Program Overview
II. Overview of
AP European
History Redesign
III. What We’re Asking
You to Do …and Why
An Overview of the AP Program




In 2011, 3,293 colleges and
universities worldwide received
AP Exam scores.

College Faculty Are Involved in
Every Aspect of AP
On an annual basis, more than 5,000 college faculty participate in AP.
Course &
exam content
Standards
alignment
Professional
development
Curriculum
studies
Comparability
studies
AP teacher
training
Curriculum
frameworks
Standard
setting studies
Question
writing and
review
Pilot draft
exam
questions
AP and pre-AP
strategies
workshops for
teachers
AP Course
Audit
AP teacher
syllabus
evaluations
Exam scoring
Exam scoring
as Chief
Readers and
Readers
Standards alignment
Institutions Participating in AP College
Comparability Studies
Trends in the General AP Student Population
2002
2012
8%
underrepresented
minority
24%
underrepresented
minority
6%
low income
21%
low income
Trends in the AP European History Student
Population
2002
10% underrepresented
minority
4%
low income
2012
15% underrepresented
minority
14% low income
Key Questions About AP Student Outcomes
and Answers Based on Recent Research
How
do AP students
perform in the
subsequent course
after earning
placement or credit?
AP Students Succeed in
Subsequent Courses
In multiple studies, AP
students exempted from
the introductory course did
as well as, or better than,
non-AP students in the
subsequent course.
AP European History Students Are More
Likely to Major in a Closely Related Discipline
than Non-AP Students
Majors in History, International Affairs, and Political Science
Non-AP
Students
4%
AP European
History Students
11%
0
5
10
Source: AP Students in College: An Analysis of Five-Year Academic Careers (2007)
Rick Morgan and John Klaric.
15
AP European History
Higher Education Study
Section 2: The AP European History Redesign
Victoria Thompson
Arizona State University
AP European History Curriculum Development and
Assessment Committee
Why We’re Changing the AP European
History Course

Encourage in-depth learning in course



Prepare for success
A Tour of the AP European History
Curriculum Framework
AP European History Curriculum Framework

historical thinking skills

historical themes
 Key concepts
 Learning objectives
Overview of the AP EH Curriculum Framework
Defining Course Themes
Provide structure for the course as a whole
Defining Key Concepts Within Period 3: c. 1815 – c. 1914


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Defining Supporting Concepts Within Key Concept 3.3
Key
Concept
3.3
The problems of industrialization provoked a range of
ideological, governmental, and collective responses.
 I.
 II.
 III.
Defining Supporting Concepts Within Key Concept 3.3
Key
Concept
3.3
The problems of industrialization provoked a range of
ideological, governmental, and collective responses.
 I.
 II.
 III.
Defining Key Concept Details
Key
Concept
3.3.I
Ideologies developed and took root throughout society as a
response to industrial and political revolutions.

A. Liberals emphasized popular sovereignty, individual rights, and enlightened selfinterest but debated the extent to which all groups in society should actively
participate in its governance.

B. Radicals in Britain and republicans on the continent demanded universal male
suffrage and full citizenship without regard to wealth and property ownership; some
argued that such rights should be extended to women.

C. Conservatives developed a new ideology in support of traditional political forms
that was based on the idea that human nature was not perfectible.

D. Socialists called for a fair distribution of society’s resources and wealth, and
evolved from a utopian to a Marxist “scientific” critique of capitalism.

E. Anarchists asserted that all forms of governmental authority were unnecessary, and
should be overthrown and replaced with a society based on voluntary cooperation.

F. Nationalists encouraged loyalty to the nation in a variety of ways, including
romantic idealism, liberal reform, political unification, racialism with a concomitant
anti-Semitism, and chauvinism justifying national aggrandizement.

G. A form of Jewish nationalism, Zionism, developed in the late 19th
century as a response to growing anti-Semitism in both Western
and Eastern Europe.
Illustrative Examples
Key
Concept
3.3.1
The problems of industrialization provoked a range of
ideological, governmental, and collective responses.

I. Ideologies developed and took root throughout
society as a response to industrial and political
revolutions.

AP Exam questions
will not ask students
about these topics
A. Liberals emphasized popular sovereignty, individual
rights, and enlightened self-interest but debated the
extent to which all groups in society should actively
participate in its governance.
Teachers have flexibility to use examples of liberals
such as the following:
Jeremy Bentham, Anti-Corn Law League,
John Stuart Mill
Learning Objectives for
Poverty and Prosperity
Students demonstrate understanding of how capitalism has
developed as an economic system.
In particular, students can…
 PP-1 Explain how and why wealth generated from new trading, financial, and
manufacturing practices and institutions created a market and then a consumer
economy.
 PP-2 Identify the changes in agricultural production and evaluate their impact on
economic growth and the standard of living in preindustrial Europe.
 PP-3 Analyze the reasons for the emergence and development of self-interest in
economic practice and theory.
 PP-4 Explain how geographic, economic, social, and political factors affected the
pace, nature, and timing of industrialization in Western and Eastern Europe.
 PP-5 Explain how the development of new technologies and industries — as well as
new means of communication, marketing, and transportation — contributed to
expansion of consumerism and increased standards of living and quality of life in the
19th and 20th centuries.
 PP-6 Analyze the origins, characteristics, and effects of the post–World War II
“economic miracle” and the economic integration of Europe
(the Euro zone).
Learning Objectives Connect Key Concepts
Thematically Across the Different Historical Periods
Analyze the reasons for the emergence and development
of self-interest in economic practice and theory.
PP-3
Period 2
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



Period 3

Overview of the AP EH Curriculum Framework
Assessing Student Understanding of the
Learning Objectives
Exam questions are
designed to…

historical thinking skills

long-term, significant
historical developments

flexibility
Why Are Multiple Choice
Questions Important?
Multiple choice questions help
maintain the meaning of an AP
score over time.
 Within a subject, equators are the
subset of multiple choice questions
that are common across examination
forms and years.
 Equators allow comparison
and consistency between exam
forms over time.
Draft MCQ Set: Stimulus
Questions 1-3
Seed Yields for Wheat
and Barley
10
5
1600 1650
* Seed yield (or crop yield) is a ration of the number
of seeds of grain harvested for each seed sown.
Source: Norman J. G. Pounds, A Historical Geography of Europe,
Volume II: 1500-1840, Cambridge University Press, 1979, p. 182.
1700 1750
Year
1800
Great Britain and the Low Countries
France, Spain, and Italy
Central Europe and Scandinavia
Eastern Europe
Draft Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Set:
Question 1
The patterns shown on the
graph above contributed
most directly to which of
the following?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Seed Yields for Wheat
and Barley
10
5
1600 1650 1700 1750 1800
Year
Great Britain and the Low Countries
France, Spain, and Italy
Central Europe and Scandinavia
Eastern Europe
Draft Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Set:
Question 1
The patterns shown on the graph above contributed
most directly to which of the following?
(B)
Skills:
• Causation
• Interpretation
Learning
Objective:
Key Concept:
Poverty and
Prosperity-4
The Agricultural
Revolution produced
more food using fewer
workers; as a result,
people migrated from
rural areas to the cities
in search of work.
Explain how geographic,
economic, social, and
political factors affected
the pace, nature,
and timing of
industrialization in
western and eastern
Europe.
2.4 IV A
Draft Multiple Choice Question
(MCQ) Set:
Question 2
Apart from the changes in seed
yield shown on the graph above,
which of the following most
affected Europe’s ability to feed
itself in the period 1600-1800?
(A) The creation of large cash-crop
plantations in the Americas
Seed Yields for Wheat
and Barley
10
5
1600 1650 1700 1750 1800
Year
Great Britain and the Low Countries
France, Spain, and Italy
Central Europe and Scandinavia
Eastern Europe
(B) The cultivation of New World crops in Europe
(C) The widespread mechanization of agriculture
(D) The decreasing tendency of armies to target civilian
populations during wartime
Draft Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Set:
Question 2
Apart from the changes in seed yield shown on the graph
above, which of the following most affected Europe’s
ability to feed itself in the period 1600-1800?
Skill:
(D) The
cultivation
of New
World crops
in Europe
• Causation
Learning
Objective:
Key Concept:
Interaction of
Europe and the
World-5
The exchange of new
plants, animals, and
diseases—the
Columbian Exchange—
created economic
opportunities for
Europeans and
facilitated European
subjugation and
destruction of
indigenous peoples,
particularly
in the Americas
Evaluate the impact of
the Columbian
Exchange — the global
exchange of goods,
plants, animals, and
microbes — on
Europe’s economy,
society, and culture.
1.4 IV B
Draft Multiple Choice Question
(MCQ) Set:
Question 3
In the late 1700s and early 1800s,
liberal political economists in
western Europe used information
similar to the data shown in the
graph to argue that
Seed Yields for Wheat
and Barley
10
5
1600 1650 1700 1750 1800
Year
Great Britain and the Low Countries
France, Spain, and Italy
Central Europe and Scandinavia
Eastern Europe
(A) governments should require
landholders to make agricultural improvements
(B) the export of food crops and other agricultural products
should be restricted
(C) agricultural work had moral and physical benefits that
were superior to those of industrial labor
(D) abolition of common agricultural land holdings would
result in greater agricultural productivity
Draft Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Set:
Question 3
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, liberal political
economists in western Europe used information similar to
the data shown in the graph to argue that
Skills:
(D) abolition of
common
agricultural
land
holdings
would result
in greater
agricultural
productivity
• Contextualization
• Use of Evidence
Learning
Objective:
Key Concept:
Interaction of
Europe and the
World-5
The exchange of new
plants, animals, and
diseases—the
Columbian Exchange—
created economic
opportunities for
Europeans and
facilitated European
subjugation and
destruction of
indigenous peoples,
particularly
in the Americas
Evaluate the impact of
the Columbian
Exchange — the global
exchange of goods,
plants, animals, and
microbes — on
Europe’s economy,
society, and culture.
1.4 IV B
Draft Short Answer
Question
4 questions per section; 50 minutes total
The following four factors were important influences on
European countries’ drive to acquire overseas colonies:




Christian missionary zeal
Commercial competition among European powers
Notions of European racial superiority
Political rivalries within Europe
(A) Choose ONE specific event or process related to European
colonization and imperialism in the period 1450–1914, and then
explain how ONE of the four factors listed above influenced that
event or process.
(B) Explain WHY the factor you chose for A had a stronger influence
on the event or process than any of the other three factors
listed above.
Draft Short Answer
Question
4 questions per section; 50 minutes total
The following four factors were important influences on
European countries’ drive to acquire overseas colonies:
 Christian missionary zeal
 Commercial competition among European powers
 Notions of European racial superiority
 Political rivalries within Europe
Skills:
Learning Objectives:
•
Causation
Interaction of Europe and
the World-1, 2, 3
•
Comparison
 Assess the relative influence of
economic, religious, and political
motives in promoting exploration and
colonization.
 Analyze the cultural beliefs that justified
European conquest of overseas
territories and how they changed over
time.
 Analyze how European states established
and administered overseas commercial
and territorial empires.
Document-Based
Question
1 question; 60 minutes
Analyze the influence of ideas about gender on the reign
of Elizabeth I and explain how Elizabeth responded
to these ideas.
Skills:
Learning Objectives:
• Contextualization
States and Other Institutions
of Power-2, 11
• Argumentation
• Use of Evidence
• Synthesis
Individual and Society-5
• Explain the emergence of and theories
behind the New Monarchies and absolutist
monarchies, and evaluate the degree to
which they were able to centralize power
in their states.
• Analyze how religious and secular
institutions and groups attempted to limit
monarchical power by articulating theories
of resistance to absolutism, and by taking
political action.
• Analyze how and why the nature and role
of the family has changed over time
Document Based Question (DBQ) Sources
Document Based Question: Analyze the influence of ideas about gender on
the reign of Elizabeth I and explain how Elizabeth responded to these ideas.
Draft Question:
Long Essay
Choice between 2 questions; 35 minutes
Analyze whether or not the revolutions of 1848 can
be considered a turning point in European political
history.
- orAnalyze whether or not the First World War I (19141918) can be considered a turning point in European
intellectual and cultural history.
Draft Question:
Long Essay
Choice between 2 questions; 35 minutes
Analyze whether or not the revolutions of 1848 can be
considered a turning point in European political history.
Skills:
Learning Objectives:
• Causation
States and Other Institutions
of Power-4, 14, 17
• Continuity and
Change Over Time
• Periodization
• Argumentation
• Synthesis
• Analyze how new political and
economic theories from the 17th
century and the Enlightenment
challenged absolutism and shaped the
development of constitutional states,
parliamentary governments, and the
concept of individual rights.
• Analyze the role of warfare in
remaking the political map of Europe
and in shifting the global balance of
power in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Explain the role of nationalism in
altering the European balance of
power, and explain attempts made to
limit nationalism as a means to
ensure continental stability.
Draft Question:
Long Essay
Choice between 2 questions; 35 minutes
Analyze whether or not the First World War I (1914-1918)
can be considered a turning point in European
intellectual and cultural history.
Skills:
Learning Objectives:
• Causation
Objective Knowledge and
Subjective Visions-8, 10, 13
• Continuity and
Change Over Time
• Periodization
• Argumentation
• Synthesis
• Explain the emergence, spread, and
questioning of scientific,
technological, and positivist
approaches to addressing social
problems.
• Analyze the means by which
individualism, subjective experience,
and emotion came to be considered a
valid source of knowledge.
• Explain how and why modern artists
began to move away from realism
and toward abstraction and the
nonrational, rejecting traditional
aesthetics.
AP European History
Higher Education Study
Section 3: Overview of Independent Review Assignment
and the Advanced Strategy Labs (Virtual Focus Groups)
Ariel Foster
Executive Director,
AP College and University Services
Why Are We Asking for Your Feedback?

To confirm

To explore and better
understand

To better understand
Structure of the AP® European History
Curriculum Framework
4 Historical Periods with 20 Key Concepts
Supporting Concepts (I, II, III,…)
Thematic-Based
Learning
Objectives
Concept Details (A, B, C,…)
Historical Thinking
Skills
The Independent Review Feedback Form
Key Concept 1.1 The worldview of European intellectuals shifted from one based on the
authority of scripture and the ancients to one based on inquiry and observation of the
natural world.
(Please reference pages 34-36 in the Curriculum Framework for further information.)
1. How important is each of the following to success in subsequent learning experiences in history?
That is, how important is it that students bring this knowledge with them to courses that follow your introductory
European history (c. 1450 to the present) course? Use a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 = Not at all important for
success in subsequent courses and 10 = Essential for success in the subsequent course
Click on the highlighted box to the right of each item and type your response (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
into the box to the right of each item.
Supporting Concept and Concept Details
Rate 1 to 10
1=Not at all
important
10=Essential
1.1. I
A revival of classical texts led to new methods of scholarship and new values in both society and religion.
1.1. I. A
Italian Renaissance humanists promoted a revival in classical literature and created new
philological approaches to ancient texts. Some Renaissance humanists furthered the values of
secularism and individualism.
1.1. I. B.
Humanist intellectual activities challenged the institutional power of universities and the
Roman Catholic Church, and shifted the focus of education away from theology toward the
study of the Greek and Roman classics.
1.1. I. C.
Admiration for Greek and Roman political institutions supported a revival of civic humanist
culture in the Italian city-states.
1.1. I. D.
The study of Greek and Roman texts produced new models for individual and political
behavior.
Timeline for the Independent
Review Assignment
September 17th



September 17-28, 2012
September 28, 2012
Virtual Focus Groups
Dates of the virtual focus groups:
October 3, 7-9 pm ET
or
October 4, 7-9 pm ET
hlee@harrisinteractive.com
The Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) European History:
Higher Education Study
Appendix
Draft MCQ Set: Stimulus
Questions 1-3 are based on the following passage.
Galileo Galilei, excerpt from The Starry Messenger, a treatise outlining
Galileo’s astronomical discoveries using a telescope, including his discovery of
four of Jupiter’s moons, 1610.
Draft Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Set:
Question 1
Galileo’s reference in the passage to an anecdote from the
history of ancient Rome and his knowledge of classical
mythology would likely have been interpreted by his
contemporaries as
(A) an indicator of his hostility to new ideas and new modes
of discovery
(B) a normal and expected part of humanist discourse
(C) troubling evidence of Galileo’s rejection of Christianity
(D) an indirect appeal for the political unification
of Italy
Draft Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Set:
Question 1
Galileo’s reference in the passage to an anecdote from the
history of ancient Rome and his knowledge of classical
mythology would likely have been interpreted by his
contemporaries as
Skill:
(B) a normal
and
expected
part of
humanist
discourse
• Contextualization
Learning
Objective:
Key Concept:
Objective
Knowledge and
Subjective Visions5
A revival of classical
texts led to new
methods of scholarship
and new values in both
society and religion.
Analyze how the
development of
Renaissance
humanism, the printing
press, and the
scientific method
contributed to the
emergence of a new
theory of knowledge
and conception of the
universe.
1.1 I
Draft Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Set:
Question 2
Which of the following generalizations about scientists of
the early modern period in Europe is best supported by
the passage?
(A) They valued their academic freedom
and steered clear of associating with political authority.
(B) They thought scientific knowledge would be best advanced
through the rediscovery of lost ancient Greek and Roman
scientific texts.
(C) They believed their discoveries had advanced scientific
knowledge further than it had been even in classical antiquity.
(D) They continued to express belief in magic and the supernatural,
even as they made important discoveries through empirical
observation of natural phenomena.