Oxford Academy has a wide variety of career-focused resources including Anaheim’s Innovative Mentoring Experience (AIME), pathway courses, and integrated counseling courses, however for the first time, the business pathway will be incorporating the new AP Business with Personal Finance course into its curriculum.
On Sept. 18, 2025, the College Board announced a partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in hopes of bringing more career technical education (CTE) courses to high school classrooms in the U.S. They launched the AP Career Kickstart Program with two new courses for the 2026-2027 school year: AP Business with Personal Finance and AP Cybersecurity. Of the two, AP Business with Personal Finance, also known as AP Business Principles, will be introduced in Oxford Academy’s course selection next year.
Although recently added, these career-centered courses have already been endorsed by over 40 states, 300 employers, and over 70 local chambers. They are also approved in 13 states to be a part of the school course selection. The classes are designed to bring experience and confidence to students who will enter the workfield after high school graduation.
The initiation of these courses are backed by a survey conducted through the US Chamber of Commerce—84% of hiring managers stated that many high school students were unprepared or lacked the skills necessary to join the workforce.
The survey indicates a majority of hiring managers involved in the study think AP Business with Personal Finance will positively impact workforce readiness by teaching money management, business fundamentals, and decision making skills. College Board also stated four out of five students want more CTE classes with business being a main priority, hence why the addition of the class is necessary for skills development.
The AP class will include topics such as earning income, spending and saving, investing, and managing risks and credit. In addition to business and marketing, the course will teach students about looking after their personal finances as well.
“I hope to learn more about the marketing strategies that companies use in real life, and how those strategies help them get more customers to buy their products,” said freshman Tran Tran, a student who plans to take AP Business with Personal Finance next year. “I think it will expand on the vocabulary and knowledge that we already have from our current marketing class. I’m planning to pursue a career in marketing, so I know this class will be extremely helpful in preparing me for that.”
The course implements workforce skills for businesses, start ups, corporations, and organizations of all sizes, while promoting business discipline in entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, and management. AP Business Principles also applies other professional and leadership skills through case studies, business application, project based learning integrated into its modules. The curriculum also follows the National Standards for Personal Finance Education, developed by the Jumpstart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.
“I think it will be a good grounding in all of the types of things that people who are either trying to start a business or trying to work in business will be able to understand about business,” said Mr. Rylaarsdam, who will be teaching the AP Business with Personal Finance course next year. “I think it will be valuable because it will introduce them to things that maybe they haven’t thought about. It will introduce them to ways of thinking about business and ways of thinking about problem solving that maybe they wouldn’t get in other courses.”
This class is a unique opportunity to attain real-world experience, gain college credits, and earn advanced placement for higher level courses. Replacing Accounting, AP Business Principles will be available as the second pathway class next year. As a CTE course, it is designed to push students to become the skilled workers of the future and allow them to explore business-related careers early in their high school journey.
“The new AP Business with Personal Finance course is a powerful way to foster the next generation of business leaders,” said the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Suzanne Clark. “We’re not only giving students a fundamental education on market principles, economics, and how business operates, we’re helping them understand the power of free enterprise to make lives better.”
