How to Become an AP Teacher

Investigating the certification process behind teaching college-level classes at high schools.

Staff Writer

Every year, students sign up for AP classes and inevitably complain about their “unqualified” teachers. Shots are taken at their teaching style, their pacing, and even their knowledge of the subject itself, prompting students to say things like, “they should have to pass the AP test themselves in order to be able to teach college-level classes.” While these types of claims are not inherently invalid, it’s rare that we actually consider what AP teachers must do in order to teach those classes in the first place.

“Before you’re given an AP assignment to teach an AP class, the district or the school site will pay for you to go to training,” says Mr. Peffer, a social science teacher at American who has been teaching AP classes since 1995. “The trainings could be a one day refresher, or four days, where they go over not so much the material, but [instead] some teaching techniques [for AP classes].”

Material is not generally covered in these training courses (unless there are updates to the curriculum) because teachers are expected to already know the bulk of the content in their class. Ms. Mishal, a first-year AP US History teacher here at American, explains that the training conferences she attended for APUSH “went over mostly LEQ’s, DBQ’s, [and how to] use AP Central to help students improve their writing skills.”

The idea of material being covered is deemed unnecessary by the College Board simply because of the prerequisites already established for becoming a public school teacher. California state law specifically requires that teachers—in order to receive credentials for teaching in public schools—must “[c]omplete a baccalaureate or higher degree…from a regionally accredited college or university.”

This applies to AP teachers just as much, if not more, than it does to non-AP teachers because they are expected to have a deeper knowledge about their given subject than teachers teaching traditional classes are expected to have of theirs. As long as you have a college degree in the field of the AP class you wish to teach—as well as specialized teacher training at the collegiate level—you are qualified to instruct that class.

However, these summer training sessions are not necessarily mandatory, even for teachers new to AP. According to The Teaching Project—a site developed by teachers providing resources for other teachers across the United States—the College Board “does not require teachers to have special training but does recommend it.” If a teacher deems that they do not need to attend these training conferences or know that they have an alternate source of getting the information, they are not obligated to attend if they do not wish to. This happens quite often, especially with experienced teachers, such as Mr. Peffer who has already attended training conferences several times before.

“I didn’t [do the training for AP World],” Mr. Peffer claims, “because Mr. Iglesias, Mr. McCluskey, and Mr. Kaeding all did it, and I figured I could get the information from them.”

Ultimately, as long as a given teacher has general teacher certification, as well as a college degree in the general field of their AP class, there is nothing else that is preventing the district or the school from assigning that teacher to that class. That’s not to say, however, that they will just throw teachers at different classes simply because they have the credentials.

“[The school is] going to take what’s in the best interest of the students, and make sure that the person who’s teaching that class can teach that class,” reassures Mr. Peffer.

Caption: Students across various high schools are dissatisfied with their AP teachers and question their qualification to teach college-level classes. Spanish (top), Psychology (second), Chemistry (middle), Calculus AB (fourth), and US History (bottom) AP textbooks are stacked upon one another in the American High School Library (PC: Muhammed A. Ali).