AP Government and Politics: Comparative – Scott Rivinius

This session, AP Government and Politics: Comparative with Scott Rivinius is offered ONLINE during Week 1: June 15-18, 2026.

Meet your APSI Consultant for AP Government and Politics: Comparative

My name is Scott Rivinius and I have been a public school teacher for over twenty years, teaching in North Carolina, Massachusetts, Texas and Maryland. For the past thirteen years, I have taught AP Comparative Government and Politics at Winston Churchill High School, a school of 2200 students outside of Washington, D.C.

I have a passion for political science and teaching AP Comparative Government and Politics. I believe this underrated course is the best of the social studies AP courses. This course greatly benefits students’ academic development, prepares them well for collegiate courses and helps them better understand the world. Over the years I have taught a wide variety of classes including AP World History, AP U.S. History, and AP U.S. Government and Politics.

I grew up in the Boston area, where I developed my love and interest in government and history. For my education background, I received my B.A. in history from Elon University; my M.A. in history from Salem State University; and my M.S. in education from Ohio University. I have been fortunate to participate in the AP Comparative Government and Politics Reading since 2013, as a reader, table leader and question leader. These experiences at the readings in Kansas City, Salt Lake City and remotely have provided me invaluable insight on how to better teach writing techniques, strategies, and skills to teachers at my workshops.

In addition, I have created multiple choice and free response questions for ETS to be used for exams and exam preparation. I have been an AP Consultant for College Board for the past six years and have really enjoyed this experience to meet teachers from all over the country and collaborate and share my experiences with them. I have run numerous APSIs and one-day workshops both in person and online and think the online format provides a more flexible learning environment. For the 2020-21 school year, I filmed AP daily videos for College Board’s AP Classroom and I hope you and your students have had a change to view those. I think the investment the College Board has made in technology in AP Daily and AP Classroom has made the course more approachable for students and teachers and more enjoyable for all. I have been participating in an AP Classroom focus group to work on making this platform the best it can be.

APSI Session Description for AP Comparative Government and Politics

College Board has provided many new electronic resources in the AP Classroom such as the question bank,  personal progress checks and AP daily videos.  We will explore these resources and discuss how these resources can help your students. 

The content for this course can be challenging for all teachers both veteran and new alike.  We will review the content featured in the CED and provide supplementary resources that can enhance both teacher and student understanding.  We will break down the thematic approach laid out in the CED as well as providing country by country material for our six case study countries (China, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia and the United Kingdom).  The APSI will benefit both teachers that teach the course thematically and those that take a country by country approach.  There will be discussion on the pros and cons of each approach, as well as using a hybrid approach for the course. 

The APSI will provide numerous resources for teachers to bring back to their classrooms, including multiple choice questions, free response questions, lesson plans, activities, projects, print resources and video resources.  A particular area of focus will be free response questions. There will be opportunities to work on question development, best practices, samples and how to best prepare students for the AP exam.  Conceptual, quantitative, comparative and argumentative free responses will all be addressed.  There will be community building, as attendees will be provided resources and sites for Comparative Government and Politics that are constantly evolving, so attendees will benefit from not just the APSI but will have places to look for new lesson ideas, content and best practices throughout the school year.

If you have any questions about the Comparative Government and Politics APSI, please contact Scott Rivinius at sfrivinius@gmail.com .

 2026 WaltonAPSI / AP Comparative Government and Politics / Scott Rivinius