AP Central - AP Capstone™ Policies
&&&&&&&&&AP Capstone™ Policies
AP Capstone™ Policies
There are certain policies that are critical to the successful implementation of AP Capstone™ at your school. Adherence to program policies and exam procedures, including performance tasks, is critical to producing valid AP& scores. Violations of program policies and/or exam procedures may result in the cancellation of student scores and/or the school being withdrawn from the AP Capstone program by the College Boards AP Program.
Participation
Only students who attend a school that has been accepted into the AP Capstone program can enroll in AP Seminar or AP Research and submit performance assessment tasks and/or take the AP Seminar End-of-Course Exam. Home-schooled students, home-school organizations, and online providers are not eligible to participate in AP Capstone.
Prerequisite
AP Seminar is a prerequisite for AP Research. Any student who enrolls in AP Research without meeting the prerequisite may not have attained the skills necessary to be successful in the course and will not be eligible for the AP Seminar and Research Certificate or the AP Capstone Diploma.
Plagiarism and Falsification or Fabrication of Information
Participating teachers shall inform students of the consequences of plagiarism and instruct students to ethically use and acknowledge the ideas and work of others throughout their course work. The student's individual voice should be clearly evident, and the ideas of others must be acknowledged, attributed, and/or cited.
A student who fails to acknowledge the source or author of any and all information or evidence taken from the work of someone else through citation, attribution, or reference in the body of the work, or through a bibliographic entry, will receive a score of 0 on that particular component of the AP Seminar and/or AP Research Performance Assessment Task. In AP Seminar, a team of students that fails to properly acknowledge sources or authors on the Written Team Report will receive a group score of 0 for that component of the Team Project and Presentation.
A student who incorporates falsified or fabricated information (e.g. evidence, data, sources, and/or authors) will receive a score of 0 on that particular component of the AP Seminar and/or AP Research Performance Assessment Task. In AP Seminar, a team of students that incorporates falsified or fabricated information in the Written Team Report will receive a group score of 0 for that component of the Team Project and Presentation.
AP Coordinators must order preadministration materials and AP Seminar and AP Research exams on the AP Exam Ordering website for each student enrolled in AP Seminar and/or AP Research by the preadministration ordering deadline indicated in the AP Coordinators Manual. This is to ensure that students have sufficient time to enter the AP number located in their Student Packs (received in the preadministration materials shipment) into their AP Capstone Digital Portfolio account before the submission deadline for their performance assessment tasks. Teachers will be able to score student performance tasks that do not have an AP number
however, student performance assessment tasks and teacher scores cannot be submitted to the College Board until a valid AP number has been entered for the student portfolio being submitted.
Once a student submits any performance assessment task component as final in the AP Capstone Digital Portfolio or the end-of-course exam is started, the full exam fee of $139 will be charged. If an exam order has been placed for a student for whom no performance assessment tasks have been submitted as final and the end-of-course exam was never started, the unused exam fee of $15 will be charged.
The AP Seminar End-of-Course Exam is composed entirely of free-response questions, and therefore will not be rescored. Students may obtain their AP Seminar End-of-Course Exam Section I and II Free-Response booklets for a fee. No comments, corrections, or scores are included. Booklets for exams whose sources are not released on the College Board website (for example, late-testing exams) are not available.
Score Withholding and Cancellation
If a student chooses to withhold or cancel his or her score for AP Seminar or AP Research, the entire AP Seminar or AP Research score, including the end-of course exam and performance assessment tasks, will be withheld or canceled. If a student submits any of the performance assessment tasks in AP Seminar or AP Research or takes the AP Seminar End-of-Course Exam, that student will receive a score unless he or she cancels it.
Retention of Performance Assessment Task Presentation Videos
AP Seminar and AP Research teachers are required to keep video files of all performance task presentations and oral defenses for a minimum of one academic year, since the College Board may request to review the scoring for these components to identify samples for scoring training and to ensure scoring quality.
Role of Teacher and Consultant/Expert Advisor
Please see the AP Seminar and AP Research course and exam descriptions for detailed information about the role of teachers and consultants/expert advisors in each course.
AP Capstone Conflict of Interest Policy
Because AP Capstone courses and assessments involve the scoring of student through-course performance assessment tasks by the classroom teacher, it is important to explain how the existing AP Conflict of Interest Policy (e.g., AP Program Guide, AP Coordinators Manual) applies.
To avoid any perceived conflict of interest, the College Board recommends that AP Seminar and AP Research teachers should not be the classroom teacher for anyone who is an immediate family or household member who is enrolled in AP Seminar or AP Research as this would put the teacher in the position of scoring official AP assessments. To avoid a perceived conflict of interest, the College Board recommends that the immediate family or household member who is enrolled in AP Seminar or AP Research (student) should be transferred to another class section that is taught by another teacher who does not pose a conflict of interest. Alternatively, if there is only one AP Seminar or one AP Research teacher and a schedule change will not resolve the conflict, the school should designate a different teacher and ensure that the individual is properly trained on curriculum and assessment scoring & at the schools expense & for the year(s) in which the student is enrolled in AP Seminar and/or AP Research.
The College Board renders the aforementioned recommendations in an effort to ensure that all AP Capstone exams and courses are administered under standardized conditions and prevent any student from receiving an unfair advantage on the AP Capstone course and exam. Such recommendations should be enforced by participating schools, their personnel, and students to the extent feasible and in accordance with each schools then current policies and procedures applicable to such situations.
Student Extended Absence and Performance Tasks
In the event that a student experiences an unavoidable and extended absence from school and is not able to participate in the AP Capstone Performance Assessment Tasks (AP Seminar: Team Project and P Individual Research-Based Essay and P AP Research: Academic P Presentation and Oral Defense) or any individual components of these tasks, the school/teacher should be as accommodating as possible, using technology or other means that allow the student to participate in the entire task or one or more of its components. If the student is unable to participate, for example, in the entire Team Project and Presentation or is unable to complete one or more components of either of the two performance assessment tasks, the College Board recommends to the student the following options:
Continue in the course and accept the final AP score of 1&5 that he or she earns for the completed tasks or components. For example, if an AP Seminar student is unable to participate in the Team Project and Presentation, the student could choose to complete the Individual Research-Based Essay and Presentation and the End-of-Course Exam and accept the AP score earned from these two completed assessments. (In this scenario, the teacher would remove the student from the team, and the student would receive a score of 0 for any assessment components not completed.); or
Continue in the course and then cancel his or her score by completing and submitting the AP Score Cancellation Form. (Scores may be canceled at any time. However, for scores not to be sent to any college indicated on a student's AP answer sheet, AP Services must receive the score cancellation request by June 15 of the year in which the student took the AP Exam). For example, if a student is unable to participate in the AP Seminar Team Project and Presentation, he or she may complete the other Performance Assessment Task
and, if the student does not think his or her performance on the Individual Research-Based Essay and Presentation and End-of-Course Exam will earn a score the student wants to keep on record, he or she
The student may elect to drop the course altogether and consider re-enrolling the following academic year.
The College Board renders the aforementioned recommendations in an effort to ensure that all AP Capstone exams and courses are administered under standardized conditions and prevent any student from receiving an unfair advantage on the AP Capstone course and exam. Such recommendations should be enforced by participating schools, their personnel, and students to the extent feasible and in accordance with each schools then current policies and procedures applicable to such situations.
If the student is unable to contribute to the creation of the Written Team Report in the AP Seminar Team Project and Presentation Task, the student would be ineligible to participate in the Team Multimedia Presentation, since the presentation is dependent upon the Written Team Report. (However, a student may contribute to, and receive credit for, the team report, even if he or she is unable to participate in the presentation.)
If the student is unable to complete the Individual Research and Reflection in the AP Seminar Team Project and Presentation Task, the student would be ineligible to receive a score for the Written Team Report and would be ineligible to participate in the Team Multimedia Presentation since the Written Team Report is dependent on the Individual Research and Reflection and the presentation is dependent upon the Written Team Report.
It is also acceptable for a student who has not completed one or more AP Seminar Performance Assessment Tasks to take the End-of-Course Exam.
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