Dear
educator:
We are writing to
provide you with the outcome of the effort to raise funds to sustain
AP Italian beyond this current 2008-09 academic year. As a reminder,
when the College Board announced in spring 2008 the discontinuation
of several AP courses, the College Board's trustees indicated that
if external funders came forward to supplement the College Board's
investment in AP Italian, the program could be sustained. A heroic
effort was made, led largely by the Italian Language Foundation's
leaders Dr. Margaret Cuomo and Louis Tallarini, true champions of
Italian language and cultural studies in the United States.
However, the
valiant effort to raise the needed funds was confronted head-on by
the unforeseen challenge of the current economic situation, which
appears to have restricted organizations', corporations', and
governmental abilities to partner with the College Board to save AP
Italian. Accordingly, with great sadness we announce that AP
Italian will be suspended following this current, 2008-09 academic
year, and will not be offered in the 2009-10 academic year.
While AP Italian
will not be offered in 2009-10, if at some future date the funding
partnerships needed to support an AP Italian program arise, the
Board of Trustees will consider renewing work to develop and offer
the AP Italian course and exam. Please see a message below from the Italian Language Foundation,
which details their continued deep commitment to AP Italian and
their continued efforts on behalf of Italian teachers in the U.S.
The government of Italy is also interested in the effort to revive
AP Italian at some point in the future, and plans to work closely
with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other Italian State
Institutions in hopes of raising the funds needed.
While AP Italian
will no longer be offered, we strongly recommend that secondary
schools make no changes to their fourth- and/or fifth-year Italian
courses beyond simply removing the "AP" designation. Instead, these
programs should continue to be offered, and we encourage schools to
apply the following policies to sustain student enrollment in these
capstone Italian courses:
 |
We encourage
schools to give the same GPA weight to their capstone Italian
course as they do to AP courses, so that students have the
same incentive to take Italian as they do to take AP course
work in other languages. |
|
On your
School Profile, we encourage you to note that your capstone
Italian program is offered at the same level as the AP
programs in other languages. Offering such courses of study
beyond the more commonly taught languages demonstrates to
admissions offices your school's commitment to providing an
array of rigorous academic opportunities for your
students. |
|
We encourage
school counselors to remind students of the following
points:
|
Because
Italian placement exams are provided by college and
university departments nationwide, students who remain
in your school's Italian program through your capstone
Italian course can continue to receive through the
departmental exam the same sort of placement the AP
Italian Exam qualified them to receive. |
|
Admissions
officers want to see that students take the most
rigorous course work available to them, and in the case
of Italian, persisting in the course of study through
the capstone course offered by your school will provide
admissions officers with evidence that students have
studied Italian at the highest and most rigorous level
available. |
|
The
College Board continues to offer the SAT® Subject Test
in Italian each December, which students can use to
demonstrate their proficiency to colleges and
universities, and possibly earn placement into
intermediate and advanced Italian
courses. | |
We share the
disappointment of so many of you that the efforts to raise funds to
save AP Italian were ultimately unsuccessful, but we will continue
to advocate that schools maintain strong courses of study in Italian
language and culture. Please do not hesitate to let us know if there
are ways we can champion the study of Italian in your school in the
absence of an AP Italian course and exam.
Best
wishes,
The Advanced
Placement Program
A Message from
the Italian Language Foundation
To All Advocates
of Italian Language Education:
As a bright new
year approaches, the advocates of Italian language education can
reflect on many significant accomplishments in 2008.
The Italian
Language Foundation, Inc., was established on July 3, 2008, and
received its IRS approval on August 8, 2008, as a 501(c)3
not-for-profit corporation. The ILF dedicated itself to the
fundraising effort for the support of the Advanced Placement Program
in Italian Language and Culture.
Individual
American and Italian donors and not-for-profit organizations in both
countries understood the importance of the mission of the Italian
Language Foundation, and provided over $650,000 in funds and
contingent commitments since July. We are grateful to all of you who
contributed, and who encouraged others to follow your example. This
official effort served to galvanize the community of Italian
language educators and advocates in an unprecedented and highly
organized manner.
Originally, the
College Board's financial requirement was $9.5 million in total
funding over a 10-year period. $4.5 million for this support was due
in 2008/09 to convert AP Italian to an Internet model (similar to
that funded by the Chinese and Japanese governments for AP Chinese
and AP Japanese) that would have enabled the College Board to offer
AP Italian at lower cost. However, the College Board was also
willing to retain the current scoring model for one more year, which
would have reduced the financial requirement to $1.5 million for
2008/09, but would also have increased the funds needed for years
beyond 2008/09. With a substantial increase in enrollment of
students taking the AP Italian Exam, that financial requirement
would be reduced accordingly in future years.
The cataclysmic
change in the economic climate since July 2008 has adversely
affected this vital fundraising effort. The full financial
partnership that was required from the Republic of Italy has not
been forthcoming. All of the financial commitments made to the
Italian Language Foundation by Italian American organizations were
conditioned upon support from the Republic of Italy.
Therefore it will
not be possible to meet the immediate financial commitments and
guarantees of future funding in 2009 required by the College Board
for the continuance of the AP Italian Language Program past May
2009. We remain hopeful that the Republic of Italy will review and
reconsider its position. While it is now too late to fund AP Italian
for the 2009-10 academic year, the College Board has agreed to
reinstate the AP Program in Italian Language and Culture in 2010-11
or beyond if and when financial support becomes available from the
Republic of Italy. The ILF is confident that the same Italian
American organizations will step forward again with funding
commitments if we receive equal support from the Republic of
Italy.
The Italian
Language Foundation, Inc., is dedicated to the support of Italian
language education. We will continue to support Italian language
education through professional development workshops and summer
study in Italy experiences for teachers of Italian. Plans are in
progress for a 2009 summer institute for teachers hosted by the
University of Palermo in Sicily. We will encourage study-abroad
programs for high school students of Italian through the San Vigilio
Foundation in Trento.
In the months
ahead, we will continue our fundraising efforts in the hopes of
meeting the financial goals presented by the College Board for the
support of the AP Italian Language Program.
We realize that
we will all share a deep sense of disappointment after the diligent
and tireless effort on the part of the Italian Language Foundation
and yourselves. However, we will continue to fundraise because we
believe that our children and grandchildren and all American high
school students deserve the opportunity to experience a first-class
Italian language education in the United States of
America.
With sincere
appreciation,
Margaret I.
Cuomo, M.D.
President
Louis
Tallarini
Chairman | 
