The College Board will publish new versions of the Advanced Placement biology and A.P. United States history exams next month, according to The New York Times. These changes will go into effect for the 2012-13 school year and are part of a total overhaul of the A.P. program, The Times reported last week. The College Board will now provide a structure for teachers to follow in their classes and will decrease the number of facts students need to memorize, placing emphasis instead on broader concepts and creative and analytical thinking elements crucial in today's economy, according to The Times. These changes come in light of increasing anxiety felt by teachers and students as they face overwhelming amounts of material in preparation for the May exams, The Times reported. The implementation of the new A.P. program will begin this year in the German and French language programs, since those classes are typically less populated, while larger changes in other science and history exams may be released in 2014 or 2015.
Papers presented last Friday at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association questioned the relevance of core material taught in graduate economics programs, Inside Higher Ed reported on Monday. Students and professors expressed frustration with the required coursework in macroeconomics, microeconomics and econometrics, citing such issues as the unrealistic assumptions and models stressed in the microeconomics portion of the core. The papers argued that the infusion of the economics curricula should be infused with more creativity and skills applicable to real-life scenarios, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Stanford University computer science professor Jeffrey Ullman has been criticized by the National Iranian American Council for making "racially discriminatory and inflammatory" remarks about Iranians, The Stanford Daily reported Monday. The organization asked Stanford President John Hennessy to punish Ullman due to his e-mail response to a graduate student from Sharif Univeristy in Iran, who requested information from Ullman about the admissions process for the university's computer science graduate program. Ullman referred the student's questions to the university's admissions website, adding that, if he were in a position to do so, he would not help the student gain admission due to Iran's refusal to recognize the rights of Israel, The Daily reported. Stanford does not intend to take action against Ullman because he is not involved in admissions and is free to express his personal beliefs, according to The Daily.
