Written by: Ms. Katherine Webster
For the past 2 schools years at EtonHouse International School Suzhou, China we have offered the Advance Placement Program which is a course developed in the United States of America for high school students to gain placement and course credit for universities all over the world who obtain high scores above a certain number on the examinations. The Advance Placement curriculum is a first year university level subjects created for the College Board by a panel of experts and college-level educators in each subject. The Advance Placement exams are scored on a 1 to 5 scale and many of our students since introducing this curriculum have score top marks which is a great achievement for the school, its teachers and students. The programs of Mandarin and Studio Art have seen students score 5 in the two years of the courses being offered. In addition, completing AP courses help students qualify for various types of scholarships. According to the College Board, 31 percent of colleges and universities look at AP experience when making scholarship decisions.Over the 2 years we've been running the AP program at EtonHouse we have seen all our students who sat for the AP Mandarin exams and Studio Artpass with 3 or more which is a great achievement for our school, teachers,and students.The 2 students we are going to showcase are Edith Tseng and Renee Langendonk.
The Advance Placement Studio Art portfolios are designed for students who are seriously interested in the practical experience of art. Students are challenged to develop their own personal work and develop mastery of concept, composition and execution of their personnel ideas and themes. AP Studio Art is not based on a written exam; instead, students submit their portfolio for evaluation at the end of the school year. The structure of the portfolio is in 3 sections; Quality permits the student to select the works that best exhibit a synthesis of form, technique, content that best demonstrates excellence. The Concentration component is where the student produces 12 consecutive pieces of work that make a coherent visual statement about the development of a theme or concept. In the Breadth section the student is asked to demonstrate a serious grounding in visual principles and material techniques. Renee Langendonk completed the AP Studio Art in 2D design in one year, scoring 5the highest point score.