Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics (Period 5)

AP U.S. Government and Politics provides a college-level, non-partisan introduction to key political concepts, ideas, institutions, policies, interactions, roles, and behaviors that characterize the constitutional system and political culture of the United States. This class will encourage students to become more civic-minded citizens as they prepare themselves to be part of an educated electorate. Students will study U.S. foundational documents, Supreme Court decisions, and other texts and visuals to gain an understanding of the relationships and interactions among political institutions, processes, and behavior. They will also engage in disciplinary practices that require them to read and interpret data, make comparisons and applications, and develop evidence-based arguments. In addition, they will complete a political science research or applied civics project. The AP U.S. Government and Politics course is organized around five units: foundations of American democracy; interactions among branches of government; civil liberties and civil rights; American political ideologies and beliefs; and political participation. All students enrolled in the course are selected by the instructor to take the AP U.S. Government and Politics Examination on May 6th, 2019, for which there is a fee. Those students who achieve a score of 5, 4, or 3 on the examination are eligible for college credit.