Resources for Educators

You may be wondering if your school can move away from school-as-test-prep. But you can probably also think of reasons why it will never happen.

We don’t want to understate the challenges, but we can say definitively that any school can do so and emerge stronger. The schools that have replaced or de-emphasized AP include public schools in urban, small-town, and suburban areas; prestigious independent schools and relatively anonymous ones; traditional schools and progressive schools; religiously affiliated schools of all types; and charter schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas. To our knowedge, there has not been a school in which concerted efforts by faculty and administration did not overcome any opposition.  Nor do we know of a school that has returned to AP after moving away from it.

Those who have never taught in a school that controls its own curriculum need a vivid imagination to grasp the enormous benefits to every aspect of school life. We recommend that you browse the ICG web site for a taste of what is possible.

The rest of this section is devoted to more practical matters.  There is no uniform playbook for by which schools distance themselves from AP.  Some refer to the change as merely “dropping the AP designation” on their courses while retaining a commitment to prepare some or all students to take AP exams, which continue to be offered by most post-AP schools on their campuses. Some schools plan a gradual phase-out; a few retain AP courses in some disciplines but not others.  Still other schools opt for a more complete break from AP, with public forums and discussion throughout the community.  Whatever the approach, it is crucial that replacing AP be seen not as an end but as a beginning.  Before the process moves very far, schools are well-served to articulate a clear vision of what comes next.

Below is a summary of the issues likely to arise with key school constituencies, followed by a variety of internal documents from schools that have gone through the process of dropping or de-emphasizing AP. We also offer a selection of news and opinion articles from the national media.

Please know that the Independent Curriculum Group and its member schools stand ready to help you in any way we can. For further information, fill out our Contact form. We can put you in touch with colleagues at our schools who can offer additional information and insight.

Good luck!

Replacing AP: What to Expect from Major Constituencies

The Colleges
Obstacles in college admissions are fewer than most schools fear. Indeed, the benefit of standing out in an applicant pool means that students with unique non-AP electives often get a boost.  Colleges and universities universally say that they evaluate students in the context of the opportunities available to them, and post-AP schools report few difficulties. In California, courses with the AP designation can be certified as honors courses at the University of California. In other state systems, equivalent weighting for non-AP courses can generally be obtained.  A post-AP curriculum does require school counselors to include detailed information about advanced courses in their school profiles. Counselors also must devote more effort to coaching advanced students on how to obtain appropriate placement once enrolled in college. Most institutions offer alternative ways for qualified students to place out of basic courses, such as institutional placement tests and SAT Subject Test results.

The School Admissions Office (Non-Public Schools)
Many school admissions offices have concerns about eliminating AP because they use it as a selling point to prospective families. But dropping AP need not be a negative for school admissions. A home-grown curriculum can help schools define their niche in a competitive market. A school may lose an occasional family over worry about the lack of AP, but it will gain others that see value in a curriculum not geared to standardized tests. The result will be a more cohesive school community that shares a greater commitment to the school’s mission and its approach to learning. Today, many non-public schools offer fewer AP courses than do local public schools. A curriculum without AP can be a curriculum that makes a difference.

The Parents
Parental anxiety is the biggest challenge to replacing AP courses, and schools should make every effort to help parents understand the decision. Often, a multi-year process is necessary. It is important to emphasize that students will still be well-prepared to take AP exams in many subjects even if courses do not carry the AP designation.  Parents tend to overestimate how often students use AP credit to accelerate their college careers. Many schools have found that their graduates rarely do so. Parents also worry about college admissions, and these fears can be allayed by citing the experience of other schools that have moved away from AP, and by hosting visits by college admissions officers to discuss with parents how they evaluate students from schools from post-AP high schools.

The School Faculty
Schools should not be surprised if some faculty members resist a move away from AP. For those who have spent years preparing students for the AP exam, change may not come easy.  But replacing AP is a vote of confidence in the school’s teaching staff,  and many teachers are grateful to administrators for taking a potentially controversial stand on their behalf.  All faculty should understand that dropping the AP designation on courses does not prevent them from teaching the AP curriculum if they choose. Nor does it prevent their students from taking AP exams. Of particular note is that Calculus AB and Calculus BC are not College Board terms. Schools can continue to offer these courses without calling them “AP.”

The Long Run
Once a school has de-emphasized AP, it discovers a new world of learning possibilities. Students initially continue to take AP exams in large numbers, but within a year or two, fewer students take them as they realize that the exams are not necessary for college admission. The portion of students taking AP exams will ultimately be limited to those who do so for placement purposes, mainly for attendance at large state universities. For most schools, the time spent managing the AP debate is well worth a quantum improvement in the school’s learning environment.

 

Consulting Services

ICG Executive Director Bruce G. Hammond is available throughout the year for consultation relevant to curricular independence.  He conducts a variety of in-service programs that can help you navigate the process of self-study and/or explain the benefits of curricular independence to faculty, staff, trustees, and parents.  Whether your discussions are at a preliminary stage, or you’re firmly committed to dropping AP, Bruce can give you important back-up and help broaden the horizons of your school community. Contact Bruce.

 

Resources: From the Education World

1) Documents from Crossroads School.  Crossroads decided to eliminate AP courses in 2005.  The accompanying PDF includes the following:

• A timeline of Crossroads’ decision-making process
• AP Decision Marketing Plan
• Letter soliciting feedback from directors of admissions
• Survey for directors of admissions
• Letter to families about moving away from AP
• Commonly Asked Questions
• Comments on Advanced Placement from various constituencies
• Descriptions of advanced courses to replace AP
(PDF: Crossroads)

2) Documents from Scarsdale High School. Included are:

• A report to the Superintendent of Schools about the courses that Scarsdale designed to replace AP. (PDF: Scarsdale Board Report)
• A Teacher Feedback Survey, in which teaching staff describe the impact on teaching and learning of the district’s move away from AP. (PDF: Scarsdale Feedback Report)
• A status report from November, 2008, on Scarsdale’s new curriculum. (PDF: Scarsdale Advanced Topics)

3) “Westtown School and Advanced Placement: Frequently Asked Questions”
Westtown includes this document in its curriculum guide. (PDF: Westtown AP FAQ)

4) “Beaver Country Day School and the Advanced Placement Program: Frequently Asked Questions”
Beaver Country Day’s FAQ on AP. (PDF: BCDS AP FAQ)

5) “Better Decisions – Better Lives, by Dan Slack and Mark Thorburn, Independent School Magazine, Summer 2007.  Administrators from Haverford School place their decision to move away from AP in the context of an initiative with the Decision Education Foundation. 
http://www.nais.org/publications/ismagazinearticle.cfm?Itemnumber=149995&sn.ItemNumber=145956&tn.ItemNumber=145958

6) “Whither Advanced Placement,“ by William Lichten, Yale University, in Educational Policy Analysis Archives, June 24, 2000. Available at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n29.html

7) “American History Now” at http://www.amhistnow.blogspot.com . Check out this blog for a bird’s-eye view of curricular independence in action through the eyes of a veteran history teacher at Fieldston School.  Note particularly “The Felix Chronicles,“ an on-going commentary about how dialogue between a teacher and his students creates deep learning.

 

Resources: From the Media

1) The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com, has a number of relevant articles, focused primarily on Scarsdale High School and Fieldston School, that are available free in its archive.

About Scarsdale High School:

“Scarsdale Adjusts to Life Without Advanced Placement,” December 6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/education/07advanced.html?scp=1&sq=%22Scarsdale+High+School%22+Advanced+Placement&st=nyt
“Scarsdale Seeks Alternative to Advanced Placement,” February 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/18wetopic.html
“Demoting Advanced Placement,” October 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/education/04EDUCATION.html

About Fieldston School:

“High School Drops Its A.P. Courses, And Colleges Don’t Seem to Mind,”  February 1, 2002 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506E1DE173DF932A35751C0A9649C8B63

2) Education Week, http:// http://www.edweek.org, offers significant coverage of AP and testing issues.  The site is open only to subscribers except for occasional intervals of free access for all.  A few noteworthy items include:

“Are Advanced Placement Courses Diminishing Liberal Arts Education?”  September 3, 2008
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/09/03/02vonblum_ep.h28.html?qs=Advanced+Placement
A member of UCLA’s Department of Communications Studies questions the preparation of AP students.  “Many students sheepishly admit that they forgot the AP material soon after the exam,” he writes.  With AP, “the ironic result is to reduce or even eliminate the quest for authentic learning,” he writes.

“On Dropping AP Courses: A Voice from the Developing Movement,” January 19, 2005 http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/01/19/19hammond.h24.html
Written by the Executive Director of the ICG, this article offers a teacher’s-eye view of the flaws of AP in independent schools.

“To AP Or Not To AP,“ February 7, 2001. 
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2001/02/07/21weeks.h20.html&levelId=2100
Author Anne Macleod Weeks offers an appraisal of AP from the perspective of an English teacher, college counselor, and AP exam reader.  She is now Director of Upper School at The Agnes Irwin School. 

3)  The Chronicle of Higher Education, http://www.chronicle.com, has somewhat less coverage of AP than does Education Week.  The site is open only to subscribers.

“Advancing Beyond AP Courses,” May 2, 2008
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i34/34b01801.htm
ICG Executive Director Bruce G. Hammond critiques AP from the perspective of college admissions. 

4) The editorial and op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times have included several columns questioning the value of AP. 

“Bursting the AP Bubble,”  May 8, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-becker8-2008may08,0,4579485.story
Tom Stanley-Becker, a student at University of Chicago Lab School, gives a critique of AP from a student’s point of view. 

“A Questionable Course,” February 13, 2006
Available for a small fee in the Los Angeles Times Archive
The editorial board of the Times takes AP to task as “a mediocre predictor of UC success” that discriminates against low-income and rural students. 

“Elite School Will Expel AP Classes,” May 5, 2005
Available for a small fee in the Los Angeles Times Archive
News coverage of the decision at Crossroads School to drop AP.

“When Testing Trumps Learning,” May 16, 2002
Available for a small fee in the Los Angeles Times Archive
The Dean of the Stanford School of Education critiques AP and the stress that it places on her daughter in the college admissions process. 

5) The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews is one of the nation’s most prominent advocates of AP, about which he writes frequently in his online column, “Class Struggle.”  He is the originator of Newsweek’s annual ranking of high schools based on the percentage of students who take AP courses.

AP vs. IB vs. Neither: A Plea for Peace and Love, November 13, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR2007111300695.html
Matthews gives his view of AP, IB, and the movement toward independent curriculum.

6) “Some High Schools Are Dropping Out of the Advanced Placement Program,“ September 19, 2008 http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2008/09/19/some-high-schools-are-dropping-out-of-the-advanced-placement-program.html

7)  “How People Learn:  Brain, Mind, Experience, and School,” The National Research Council, National Academies Press, 2000.  Though now nearly a decade old, this book is still an excellent introduction to learning and the brain. 

8) Alfie Kohn is the nation’s most insightful critic of school-as-test-prep.  For the past twenty-five years, he has published a steady stream of books attacking staples of traditional education such as grades, homework, and standardized testing.  Readers may doubt his most radical conclusions, but Kohn’s work is always intelligent and provocative.
http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.html