EL MONTE – Rosemead High School is one of approximately 1,800 schools worldwide to offer the AP Capstone Diploma program, a sequence of two year-long courses that will enable students to hone skills critical to academic and professional success – research, collaboration, writing, evidence-based arguments and communication.

Created and endorsed by more than 250 top U.S. universities – including Harvard, Yale, UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley, Princeton, Colorado State, Stanford and Duke¬ – the College Board program consists of two courses taken in sequence: AP Seminar and AP Research.

Rosemead High School will launch the AP Seminar in fall 2020, followed by AP Research in fall 2021.

“AP Capstone will allow our students to develop key academic and professional skills they’ll need in college and beyond, while challenging them to become self-confident, independent thinkers,” Rosemead High Principal Dr. Brian Bristol said. “Our teachers will also have more leeway with curriculum choices and support student access to challenging coursework.”

In AP Seminar, a project-based learning course taken in 10th or 11th grade, students choose and evaluate complex topics through multiple lenses; identify credibility and bias in sources; and develop arguments in support of a recommendation. In AP Research, students build on skills developed in AP Seminar and design, execute, present and defend a yearlong research-based investigation on a topic of their choice.

Students who score a 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research and on four additional AP exams of their choosing earn the AP Capstone Diploma. Students who score a 3 or higher in both AP Seminar and AP Research (but not on four additional AP Exams) earn the AP Seminar and Research Certificate.

“We are proud to be among a handful of high schools in the San Gabriel Valley to offer this innovative program, enabling our students to achieve academic excellence and acquire valuable college-level academic and research skills while in high school,” Superintendent Dr. Edward Zuniga said.

PHOTO CAPTION:

020620_EMUHSD_APCAPSTONE: Rosemead High School will begin to offer in fall 2020 the AP Capstone Diploma program, a rigorous two-year program that will challenge students to strengthen their research, collaboration and communication skills to succeed in college and beyond.