Advanced Placement^®Edition

United States Government & Politics

Making college level content accessible to all students without sacrificing the rigor required for success

100% aligned to most current AP^® U.S. Government & Politics College Board^® CED.
Concise and focused content.
Scaffolded skill development.
High quality primary sources including the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States reprinted in their entirety in the student edition.
AP-style assessment practice.

Each topic includes:

The Essential Question.
A narrative aligned to the course framework.
A reflection/review of the Essential Question.
A set of multiple-choice questions and two to three concept application, quantitative analysis, or SCOTUS comparison FRQs. Argument essay questions are included in unit reviews.

Extensive AP exam preparation includes hundreds of AP-style multiple-choice and free-response questions and three full-length practice tests.

All test items have been meticulously constructed to model the format and quality of those on the exam.
Each question is tied to a specific learning objective from the course framework, allowing teachers to quickly diagnose individual and class performance.

Advanced Placement Government and Politics cover

“

This book packs all of the knowledge and rigor necessary for my students to excel on their AP Exam each year in a more digestible format for high school students. We saw large increases to pass rates after switching to the AMSCO AP United States Government book by Wolfford.

”

AP U.S. Government & Politics Teacher
Social Studies Department Chair
Forest High School, Ocala, Florida

College Board Course Audit Approval Support

Perfection Learning is an OpenStax ally. We join OpenStax in the mission to improve access to affordable educational materials by providing additional resources for OpenStax books. OpenStax is committed to providing free, peer-reviewed textbook content and offering multiple options for instructors who need additional resources for their course.

List the College Board-approved OpenStax American Government resource with the AMSCO U.S. Government & Politics AP coursebook on your course audit. The paired OpenStax text is:

Available at no additional charge.
Listed on the College Board example textbook list as “American Government, OpenStax.”
Pre-approved for course audit submission.

The OpenStax American Government text has been aligned with the AMSCO coursebook including:

A day-by-day pacing guide showing how the AMSCO and OpenStax resources work together for instruction.
Page references to the exact locations in the OpenStax text where you can find additional instructional content to enhance and deepen the AMSCO instruction.
Point-of-use links in the AMSCO eBook and interactive editions to the OpenStax aligned content.

Advanced Placement Government and Politics and OpenStax edition covers

Think as a Political Scientist

Topic activities focus on political science disciplinary practices and reasoning processes.

Write as a Political Scientist

Unit activities build argumentative writing skills for the long essay question.

Think Tank—Making a Civic Connection

Support for developing the Civic Engagement Project.

Making college-level content accessible to high school students is of the utmost importance in ensuring success. The AP GoPo coursebook is carefully written and designed to ensure all students:

Comprehend key ideas.
Learn and use concept vocabulary.
Build their analytical and writing skills.

Advanced Placement Government and Politics readability sample page

The AP U.S. Government & Politics coursebook is built to meet the specific thematic Learning Objectives as well as the Key Concepts and Historical Developments for each unit. As a result, the depth and breadth of content coverage aligns precisely with the AP GoPo framework and exam.

AMSCO curriculum builds capacity, without sacrificing rigor, and supports students to develop the content knowledge and skills they need to be successful.

In early chapters, guiding questions accompany primary sources to build a particular analytical skill.
Initial inquiry and essay tasks are designed to be narrow in scope, allowing students to master smaller skills first.
Instruction and tasks to develop disciplinary practices and reasoning skills move from simple to complex as students gain competence.

Digital editions, with built-in Immersive Reader support, enable students to use a wealth of personalized tools to comprehend course content.

Translate and listen to the text in over 120 languages.
Customize readability by changing font type, size, and background color.

Immersive Reader translation example

Help students move from skimming and scanning to extracting key concepts, identifying events/developments, and formulating questions for further study. All highlights and notes are captured automatically in a running notebook—perfect for study and exam preparation.

Advanced Placement United States Government & Politics note taking example

Develop College Readiness Skills

Students gain the critical “thinking” and “doing” skills required in rigorous college courses through extended practice in:

Evaluating authors’ perspectives.
Analyzing primary and secondary sources.
Citing textual evidence to support arguments.
Developing cohesive written arguments.

Engage students through collaboration.

Participate in dynamic, inclusive small group discussions.
Share ideas and perspectives based on meaningful, text-based questions.

Think as a Political Scientist activities build students’ skills in reasoning processes. These skills, which are precisely aligned to the appropriate CED topic(s), are critical for success on longer writing tasks.

Advanced Placement Government and Politics reasoning process sample page

Success on the AP exam requires strong writing skills. The AP GoPo coursebook features Write as a Political Scientist activities to help students identify and organize evidence, structure arguments, and achieve successful outcomes on the exam.

Advanced Placement Government and PoliticsWrite as a Political Scientist sample page

The College Board requires all students taking the AP GoPo course to complete a project that shows how the student can affect, and is affected by, government and politics. Examples of projects at a national and local level are provided in the AMSCO coursebook.

“

The AP U.S. Government and Politics AMSCO text is perfect for today’s students. Each topic is aligned with the CED and the information is succinct. The writing is clear and concise and the format is consistent throughout so students are able to develop study habits while managing their other classes and activities. I highly recommend this text as a way for students to connect to the content and gain an understanding of U.S. Government and Politics as it relates to their lives...

”

Alyssa M.
Social Studies Teacher
Madisonville, Kentucky

Advanced Placement Government and PoliticsTeacher Resources

Extensive Teacher Support

Teacher materials include:

A Teacher Resource with Answer Key. Best-choice answers are identified for each multiple-choice question. Rubrics and suggested good responses are provided for all free-response questions.
Customizable PowerPoint slides.
A day-by-day pacing guide.
Two full-length practice tests with rationales.
A correlation of each question to the College Board framework.
OER resources by topic.