The College Board, which offers talented high school students a chance to earn college credits, announced it will offer an Advanced Placement program in Chinese language and culture.

The new program is a joint venture of the College Board and the Chinese government, which will contribute $685,000 to develop the tests — about half the cost.

"Our education system needs to respond to an increasingly interconnected global economy and to the growing cultural diversity in the United States," said College Board President Gaston Caperton, speaking Friday at a Washington news conference.

In June, the College Board approved in principle a plan to add three other new Advanced Placement courses and examinations in Italian, Japanese and Russian.

The advance placement program allows high school students to pursue college-level studies, offering 34 courses and exams in 19 subjects. Depending on their performance, students can earn college credits or placement into advanced classes.

More than 1 million students at more than 14,000 high schools took at least one advanced placement exam in the past year.

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