进阶先修课程：美国衔接中学与中学后教育的策略

Advanced Placement：the Strategy to Link Secondary Education and Post-secondary Education in America

20 世纪50 年代以来，美国推行的“进阶先修课程”是在高中阶段为学生开设大学水平课程的项目，学生选修此类课程并通过统一考试可以获得大学学分，这有助于学习成绩优异者提前过渡到中等后教育阶段并获得学业成功。时至今日，进阶先修课程仍因其课程内容的严谨性与挑战性、考试成绩的普适性与权威性在全球范围内备受优秀学生推崇，是学生挑战自我、获取学分、申请美国名校的有效途径，在衔接美国中学与中学后教育方面发挥着重要作用。

In the early 1950s，the United States launched the“Advanced Placement”（AP）program to provide high ability students the opportunity to explore college-level course work while still enrolled in high school. This program is an agreement between high school and community college or university offering AP exam for high school students with related course completed or those without having completed the course，and awarding college credit to those who earn sufficiently high scores on the exam. Nowadays AP program is still most well-known worldwide for outstanding students because of its rigor and challenging courses and the universal and authoritative exams，which is an effective way for students to challenge themselves or to get college credits. Simultaneously，it would be an important bargaining chip for students to apply for elite college or university in America. It has been playing an important role in combing high schools and higher education institutions in the United States.